Dark Domain Online
by MikeX713
Summary: Four hundred thousand people are trapped within a game. Thing is... in this game it's so good to be bad. Now these players must fight each other and the world in order to get out. (Adding in Kirito and the SAO Cast, not taking away anything but adding in stuff.)
1. Chapter 1

**Author: MikeX713**

 **Rating: R, you've been warned people!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything Overlord or Sword Art Online.**

In two homes on two sides of the world two boys are waiting for the start of the newest gaming experience to come out. A VR MMORPG, one has seen it during the private Bata Test while the other waits eagerly for the chance to see it for the first time. One uses it escape life while the other feels it is a world that is more home to him than the real one.

* * *

Cleveland Ohio

"Ready everyone, we are two hours away from the official release of Dark Domain Online, the full-dive MMORPG of the Overlord series." The announcer on the TV said. David watched the interview of the director of Triumph Studios while his NERV Gear charged. He lived in a small apartment but the building was owned by his uncle so he got a nice discount on rent and didn't have to pay for utilities. David was a diehard fan of Overlord even before the announcement of the MMORPG and it had killed him to have missed the closed beta. So after taking a big bit out of the two-day old pizza he had taken out of the fridge he went back to watching the interview.

"It was a long time coming but I think this will do the first two games justice." The director said while lounging back into the red and white chair he was provided. "The game is a completely open environment taking place in the world of Overlord. From Nordberg to Evernight and many new areas in between. This will take place fifteen years after Overlord 2. The Overlord has been missing for three years and new factions have formed in the power vacuum. I sure fans will…" David turned the TV off, he knew all about the game even before playing it. He looked at his new NERV Gear, he had just bought it two days ago and opened the box a few hours ago. He had never done a full dive before but had friends… not so much friends but fellow gamers who had done it and they all gave great reviews. As he finished his meal the small ping came from his NERV Gear indicating that it had fully charged. David moved from his chair to his bed with the NERV Gear on his head.

* * *

Kyoto Japan

Kazuto looks at the small bit of blood running down his thumb. It was just like him to nick himself before entering a world where it would be impossible to do so.

He had been looking forward to this day since the Bata had closed. He didn't particularly like the setting of the first ever VR MMO but it was the first and he was going to play it. He had spent all the free time he had in the world of Overlord and had gotten a good feel for the backstory but he mostly just figured out the mechanics and systems.

"I'm off to practice!" His sister yelled to him as she left the home. Kazuto barely registered it, he was too focused on what was about to happen. He looked over to his bed and smiled at the full charge his nerve gear had.

* * *

Cleveland Ohio

"Link Start." David activated the NERV Gear with this phrase and a rush of colors obstructed his view. After the system checked the connection David found himself being welcomed to Dark Domain Online. He was in a small computer chamber, where he could choose his look. He made his avatar look buff and packed with muscle, it had long blood red hair and burning red eyes. He would make a much more slender avatar later. He typed in his screen name Dyrath, once he pressed accept he stood on a dirt path that led to a fork in the road, the right path led to cute looking forest with bunnies and flowers and out to a roman like city. The left path led to a dark forest devoid of life and somehow it was night only there and led to a massive crack in the earth. On each of the paths above them was banner. The right read Good and the left read Evil. Dyrath's face was one that could be read as _dah_. The only other thing around was a smooth flouting stone with blue and red runes on it. Dyrath tapped on the stone and a small window appeared in front of him.

 _Welcome to DDO, you must now choose the path you wish to take Good or Evil. Good will always rise to oppose Evil but Evil will always find a way._

Dyrath already knew all about this. This was to divide the players and give a real story to the game without scripting one. There was no Overlord and it would be a player who would become that new Overlord and Dyrath knew there must be the same thing for the Good side. For Dyrath there was no problem here, Evil all the way. Dyrath walked down the Evil path with no regrets. Three new paths opened up, the middle one lead to the glowing crack with the bloodied banner with the words Netherghul. The right path led to a purple crystal spire with a clean elegant banner that read Elf. Dyrath knew that there were two kinds of elves in this game, the good and evil, the good ones were the same ones from the second game but the evil ones were the elves that followed Queen Fay when she was corrupted by the last Overlord. The left path lead to a small village but what was on the Banner confused Dyrath as it was tattered banner that read Alpha-Minion. Dyrath heard about the Alpha-Minion, it was a type of human Minion hybrid, a human would be exposed to the energies of the Netherworld to become Alpha-Minions. Dyrath shook his head at the side paths and moved to the middle path. The Netherghul player was the only one that could become the next Overlord and he was dead set on being that player. Dyrath walked up to the enormous crack and looked down, what he saw made him smile. He could see the entire Netherworld when he heard the small laughter. He was pushed down the crack and as he was falling he saw the faces of a few brown Minions. As he was falling he was sure that he would be caught by something but nothing happened and he crashed into a sharp rock ground.

* * *

Kirito looked around at the familiar Roman like city that was the Empire's capital.

"Hello world… I'm back." Kirito said as he tightened his fist before rushing off to explore. He had no idea just what might have changed from the Bata. The direction he paced himself towards was a small shop that he had found in the Bata that sold his favorite Dyes for clothing, Black with grey trim. Black was considered a Evil color and so finding it as a Good Player was tricky.

He passed by a mirror shop as stopped to look at his avatar, it was a bit older looking than he was and sharper to with just a little longer hair. After inspecting his face to make sure that he got everything right he continued his search for his favorite dyes.

"Hey bro! Wait up!" Kirito looked back to see another player chasing him, he had long pinkish hair and was a little taller than himself.

"What's up?" Kirito asked as the player caught his breath.

"You look like you know your way around here. You were in the Bata test weren't you?"

"Uh… yeah."

"Cool, today's my first day. So… could you give me some tips around the starting zones?"

"Yeah… I don't know if…"

"Aww… please, I'm beggin' ya. Look mine name's Klein. Nice to meet'ch." Kirito just sighed, it wasn't like the shop was going anywhere any time soon.

"Alright my name's Kirito."

* * *

The world turned black as he _died_. Dyrath was soon woken up by several blue Minions clawing at his body which had been stripped to a cloth to cover him.

"It's a wake yay!" one of the minions said in its grubled tongue.

"Move! Give its room!" another minion pushed the other away. Dyrath stood up, he noticed that his skin was a bit paler than normal and had many healed stitches. The minions pushed Dyrath across the rocky black plains that he awoke on. And he wasn't the only one, there were many other players being _woken_ up by the blue minions. He was guided by minions to an entrance to a massive dome like structure directly under the Netherworld tower. The dome was perfectly in sync with the style of the Netherworld and was clearly going to be the main Hub for the Netherghul players. After the minions left Dyrath to himself he began walking around enjoying the sights.

"Hey!" Dyrath heard from behind him. Dyrath turned around to see another player running towards him. "I know that screenname anywhere." The man said as he caught his breath.

"Do I know you?" Dyrath said in his voice, he was expecting to hear something a bit deeper.

"It's me! Honic." That name rang a bell but not completely and this showed on Dyrath's face.

"I'm sorry but… who are you?" Honic's head hung in disappointment.

"I'm Honic from World of Warcraft." Dyrath remembered his friends on the WOW server.

"Oh… Honic. Now I remember, sorry man that was uncool of me to forget."

"No its fine, you've been off WOW for years now, I just remembered your screenname because you helped me get some epic gear that got me in to one of the top guilds."

"Well I'm sorry anyways, so what do you think of this so far?"

"It's pretty damn cool, this is my third full dive game and I'm still freaked out by all this… I mean come on man we're in a freaking game!"

"Yeah, this is my first full dive. I have to say that this pretty awesome."

"You have any friends here with you or are you alone? Because I got some friends that will be logging in later today and if you're alone you can work with us."

"How many friends?" Dyrath didn't like working with people, he wasn't at all a solo player but liked to work with a small tight group.

"Like seven or maybe nine if a certain two would get out of bed." Honic continued to talk but Dyrath was only half listening. Quite a few players were now gathered in the space in front of the gates to the dome but not as many as he thought there would be. He had thought the Netherghul class would be the favorite of the starting four hundred thousand people, but might look like it was the least favorite.

"Looks like they've set up a small welcome festival for us." Dyrath said as the two entered a massive partying carnival that sat at the foot of a massive gate that led to the rest of the Netherworld. "They really went all out on the opening of this thing huh."

* * *

Klein yelled as he got knocked back by the Ram. He grumbled as he moved around the ground holding on to the spot the Ram had hit him. It was a particularly damaging place that he had been hit.

"Oh come on seriously? You can't feel any pain." Kirito pointed out causing Klein to look up in realization.

"Oh yeah your right. Sorry habit." That made Kirito wonder just how often he got hit like that for it to be habit… but then again it was kinda instinctual for any guy to react that way.

"Remember what I said, you can't go in without keeping calm. The lower your heart rate is the more the system will help. That's the base line system assist but once you get a weapon skill you'll have an even easier time using these weapons." Kirito explained as he tossed his short sword back and forth between his hands. He then focused on the Ram and took a deep breath, calming himself as prepared his attack. He took a small rock from the ground and chucked it at the Ram's head, it hit right between the eyes and damaged it down a third of its health. The Ram focused on Kirito and charged. He ducked around the first charged and brought his sword down to the Ram's back, finishing off its health bar and causing it to fall to the ground dead. Dead Mobs and NPCs didn't disappear until either the loot as been collected or the killer leaves a certain area. "Easy, you just need to learn how to let the system move your body along the lines you want it to. The idea is that everyone thinks of the cool moves we want to do and the system just makes it happen one way or another." Kirito pointed to one of the other Rams in the pasture they were in.

"So the key is to stay calm and think about the move you want to do." Klein mumbled as he mimicked Kirito's rock throwing move. He surprised himself hen the rock actually hit the Ramn in the head, not between the eyes like Kirito but in the head at least. The Ram turned toward Klein and charged. Klein dodged the initial charge and got behind the Ram, running the animal through with his sword from the back to its gut. The Ram also fell over dead with the sound of Klein celebrating.

"Good job but those Rams are as weak as they come in this game. The only thing weak might be the sheep."

"Yeah… I expected that…' Klein said before practicing a few moves. "… so, weapon Skills make fighting easier, and there's a bunch of other ones too like blacksmithing and stuff."

"Uh huh, I hear the game generates them constantly so there won't be any running out any time soon. Except for magic, you need Spell Stones for that. Some you can wear but the better and more powerful ones you need a personal conduit for because of how big they can get."

"Never been one for magic anyways!" Klein yelled out as he made one last big move.

"So what'd you think, it's kinda fun to move your body as you fight right?"

"Aw hells yeah!" Kirito nodded before speaking.

"You ready to move on?"

"Yeah man lets get going!"

* * *

Dyrath took the fried Seal on a stick form the Minion vender. He stared at it for a little bit, not too long ago it was probably still fluffy and cute… or a bunch of ones and zeros. That knowledge made it easier to take a big bite out of the creature

"You actually are eating that?" Honic asked as he watched Dyrath devour the fired animal.

"It's really good." It really was, like really fatty pork but not like bacon… more like pork chops.

"I think I'll skip eating until my next dive." Honic said trying not to stare back at the many fair foods being sold.

"Something wrong?"

"No… its nothing." Honic quickly dismissed before the two began wandering around again ending up at a small play being put on by the Minions to help explain to those new to Overlord some of the history. But it wasn't that good because…

"And den da master bashed the trees elfy on da head and da tree elfy was ohhhhhh da's hurts…" It was being put on by Minions.

"So what are they talking about?" Honic slightly chuckled as he watched the Minions try their best to act out the scene.

"They're showing the Oberon boss fight from the first game. Not the most difficult of them too but a little tricky."

"I didn't play the Overlord game, the only reason why I'm here is because this is the first multiplayer Full-Dive game. I mean I looked up the Wiki pages on the games but anything beyond that it's all new. I have to say that for fantasy settings I'm actually glad that they just didn't go with WoW or Lord of the Rings, it's nice to see some lesser IPs get some love."

"Yeah, I heard that they were in talks to use the Warhammer fantasy world but GamesWorkshop wanted them to use their newest expansion instead of the old one and… well we're not playing Age of Sigmar Online are we."

"That would have been awful, so far this looking good so all ends well ii guess." At that moment a deep bell rang out and one of the flying stone platforms came down from the Tower. The players were getting excited at the sight of Gnarl on the platform. "I think they're starting the opening ceremony." Honic pointed out and the two began following the crowd of players to the large gate that led to the rest of the Netherworld.

"Be quiet you sniveling deadyes!" Gnarl yelled out to the mass of players who stopped cheering and waited for the aged minion to speak. "About time, you all have been brought back to… um… life to bring back Evil in to the world. The Reborn Empire has spared across the land and I've grown tired of waiting for our Overlord to return. So one of you will be the new Overlord! The rest will die, be lost forever, or have other nasty things done to them. But! Those that survive until the next Overlord is named will become his Netherghul Generals to command armies of minions to crash the Reborn Empire and conquer or destroy the world above!" At that the _sky_ above began to fill with red warning signs. Red ooze flowed out of the cracks of the signs and formed the shape of the Game Master. "Eay! Just who are you?!" Gnarl lashed out at the Game Master, this worried Dyrath. If this was part of the opening show than why wasn't Gnarl acting like this was supposed to happen.

* * *

Kirito just watched with skepticism as the Game Master formed above the Empire's colosseum. Every Empire player had been teleported back to the Capital and herded into the colosseum for what he assumed was the opening ceremony but… the Game Master was interrupting it. The Emperor of the Reborn Empire had already been giving his speech when the Game Master appeared. "Welcome players, to my world." The Game Master said. "My name is Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of NERV Gear and designer of Dark Domain Online. I'm sure many of you noticed that that the logout button is missing from your menu…" Kirito and Klein quickly opened their menus to see if this was true and to their terror it was. "… this is not a flaw or bug it was how DDO was designed. There is no way to exit DDO, the only way now to leave this world is to conquer the world and defeat the Abyss Lord…" Kirito was taken back by this, there was no mention of an Abyss Lord in any articles or leaked sites on the game and it sure as hell wasn't mentioned in the Bata. "… there is one other thing you need to know. Should a player's HP bar reach zero or if the NERV Gear is removed by someone on the outside, then an electromagnetic pulse will destroy the player's brain." Several people dropped to the floor at this news. "The information has been given out to governments and news agency so the event that happening is unlikely. But despite my warning, over thirty thousand players have been deleted from both Dark Domain Online and the real world. There is one last thing, I have given an item in the inventory of every single player. Please look at it now."

* * *

Dyrath and the rest of the players pulled out a small mirror. Dyrath was encased with light. When the light was gone he looked in the mirror to see his true face. He had a sharp jaw, slim face, and blank grey eyes in contrast to the harder and more rugged face he had. His body also turned from the buff body he had chosen to his normal average body. and his long red hair turn to his jet black short hair. Honic's avatar change too, what was a tall lean man was now stocky and only a little shorter than Dyrath. Everyone around them also change, some quite drastically, Dyrath never understood the appeal of reverse gender playing. "This is the official lunch of Dark Domain Online; I wish all of you luck in completing the game." Kayaba said his form began to dissipate. Everyone simply looked up at the sky where their imprisoner was. It was Gnarl that broke the silence with his outburst of laughter. The mass of players shifted focus to the minion.

"What the fuck is so funny?!" one of the players yelled out. The minion didn't answer back but walked out of view though the platform didn't leave.

"What just happened?" Honic asked though he didn't really want an answer.

"This all just became real." Dyrath mumbled, he looked to Honic. He saw the look in the man's eyes and it brought back memories of his brother. He knew that others had this same look, this was something that needed to be fixed or people would start throwing themselves off the cliff. He never wanted to see that again, he couldn't, he began to take a step to run to the front of the players to give a speech that he hadn't thought of yet. But he didn't because he heard something else come from the platform.

"True evil!" Gnarl _yelled_ , it was more like spoke through a magic amplifier. "True evil always finds a way! This Kayaba…" Gnarl had butchered the name but this was done clearly on purpose. "… thinks he's won. But I say no! he's just made it all real for you lot!" Dyrath knew that this was just simply the system the game ran on keeping people's sprits up. To keep them from doing what he was going to try to keep them from doing. Because if everyone killed themselves then what would be the point in putting them there. "Nothing has changed! You lot still will fight for yourselves! So… Fight!" The players cheered at this. There were still some people who looked bad but now not that bad. Honic also looked better.

"So I don't those friends will be coming." Dyrath said as he held out a head to lift him up.

"No, I hope not." Honic said as he took Dyrath's arm and stood up.

* * *

"What garbage…" The Emperor said, his voice amplified to be heard across the Colosseum. The Players quickly turn their attention to him. "What that man speak about is nothing less than utter trash. It does not matter, you are men and women of the empire now more than ever. You will fight and you will die but you will die knowing that you fight against him. You fight his will for to fall in line and let his evil infect you! You shall instead be Reborn as the Empire has and Fight to Live!" For a moment the Players forgot that the man speaking was nothing more than a program and cheered at the speech. Kirito just watched. While what the program said was true to him, it wasn't the same to Kirito as it was for many others. This wasn't a game anymore, this was real life.

* * *

The gates opened up and the horde of players moved in to find three new paths the side paths led to the lower half of the dome while the middle led to the top. The platform carrying Gnarl moved above the middle path.

"While you are all Netherghuls only one of you can be the Overlord. And to do that you must prove yourself to the Netherworld but that means you will be competing against each other." Everyone looked at each other quite carefully at each other. "But! If some of you wish to chicken out, then take one of the two paths next to this one." The left path lit up with red stone lighting the way to the very bottom of the dome. "To the left is the path of the Forge Fiend, you will create the weapons and armor for the Overlord and Netherghuls as well as machines of war." The right path sparked with blue energy and led to the middle of the dome that held several spires. "The right is the path of the Warlock, you will work with magic and find new ways to kill, maim, and other things of painful nature. But for those who aspire to become the Overlord, there is only one path for you to take." The middle path was filled with minions all cheering and going crazy. "Now choose!" The platform now floated back up to the Tower. The horde of players was a hotbed of discussion and talk. By ten minutes however much of the players had chosen to go to the side paths and very few had taken the middle path.

* * *

About ten minutes after the Emperor had given his speech the gates to the Four Empire Classes opened up. The first Gate led down to the Army barracks, people that followed down that path would become part of the Empire Legion, they would mostly be combat users with a focus of sword and shield as tanks or two handed halberds for the damage dealers, they could also at some point be able to command NPC troops.

The next was to the Gladiator dungeons, while the Class was the most dangerous of them all and maybe the entire game, if you were favored by the crowds you got paid really well and could eventually command your own band of fighters. It also had the highest starting stats of any of the Classes.

The third was to the Sentinel's towers. These were the mages and magic uses, they would be given Spell Stones once they finished their basic training. At first it would appear to be the safest, but the robed men at the Gate were correctly warning people away with the knowledge that the Sentinels were likely to be the first targets of any Evil assassin this quickly made people rethink joining.

The next was gate was to taverns and bars, to become a Ranger of the Empire. They were the stealth and ranged units, but… Kirito knew from his time in the Bata that wasn't all they could do. If you put enough hard training you could hybridize the Ranger and Legionary class, the Battle Healing Skill was needed but once you got it you would become an instant power house.

The final gate led back into the city, Players that didn't want to join a class could go there and many in fact did. Kirito knew that many people simply didn't have it in them to be heroes.

* * *

Only about a third of the players remained standing outside the Netherghul paths when Honic started to talk.

"I think I'm going with the Forge Fiend path."

"Are you sure?"

"You're not going too? If you take the middle path, then you'll be facing not just the Good Players but the Evil players that side with someone else."

"I knew that, I knew that coming into this game. But the rules of DDO state that no Netherghul can directly kill each other. But that doesn't mean they can't kill each other at all. But I set out to become the next Overlord, and I won't let any of this stop me in that."

"I see… well you have my support." The two shook hands and Honic walked off to the Forge Fiend path. Dyrath looked to the Warlock path, he would like that role, to research and delve into the magical. It would be easy to just take that path and work for some Netherghul and make him or her Overlord. But nothing Evil was ever easy.

* * *

Kirito looked back at the tap on his shoulder.

"Hey… I think I'm going to with the army." Klein said, Kirito was still getting used to the scruffy new look Klein had but he wasn't one to talk now that he looked like the kid he really was.

"You sure you don't want to sit everything out and head back to the city?"

"Nah… I think what the head guy said got to people. We all know that this game needs beating and if we all turn tail and run and hide it won't ever get done. Or it might, the Evil players might come in and burning the place down and I don't think anyone wants that to happen." At the mention of the Evil Players it had reminded Kirito of the fact that Players would be no doubt forced to kill each other at some point. And he hated think about it but the Good Players might end up doing their more than fair share of it. It's a lot easier for someone to kill another if they just look like they might be evil, everyone here might know that they aren't in the back of their minds but in the heat of battle? Kirito pushed those thoughts away for the moment.

"Yeah… well i was planning on become a Ranger form the start so." Kirito just looked back at the smiling face of his new friend.

"That's cool man, I'll be on the front lines and you'll be behind them… now tell me who sounds more likely to get more glory?" Klein laughed and Kirito just smiled before walking towards the Ranger gate. "Het Kirito…" Kirito looked back for a moment. "You look better this way… way cooler than your avatar." Klein said jokingly.

"Yeah and I think that scruffy face fit you ten time better too." Kirito said before waving back to his friend and then walking toward the Ranger gate. " _I got this… can do this… I'm not going to let this world beat me._ "

* * *

Author's notes

Okay, I'm revising this story to add Kirito and the rest of the SAO cast, the only chapter that is updated so far is this one and two, I'll post on this chapter which ones have been updated. And to make sure you know, I'm only adding stuff on, not changing or removing. So you can still read through the story but it will just lack Kirito in it. It will basically be the same story once I'm done.

Also I'm not sure where Kirito live IRL so I just said Kyoto because random japan cities that tend to be used as settings.


	2. Chapter 2

Dyrath took his first step on to the path of the Overlord, the middle path that led to the very top of the dome that would be his home for a while. He walked pass the cheering minions, the game developers had done a least one thing right in that the minions were still a hilarious combination of cute and creepy. They looked just like the original games just brought up to the graphic standards for the modern world. As Dyrath walked up to the very top of the dome's levels he looked back down at last remaining players.

"Look at them, like deer in headlights." A voice side from behind. Dyrath looked behind and saw a man walking next to him. "none of them can think let alone make a good decision." The man leaned on the nearby railing. He was clearly in his mid-forties but he was still quite fit.

"They're scared, considering what just happened."

"I know… I was there too. And I'm doing just fine. My name's Xode." The man smiled, it reminded Dyrath of the guy who sold him his first used car.

"Dyrath."

"Well I think we both know who chose the better screen name but as for them, they just don't know how to take a bad situation into a good one."

"We all can't we so collected."

"They can't… but you are." Dyrath looked at Xode intently now. "I saw you when the shit hit the fan and you didn't bat an eye. I could tell we're the same, life back home so crappy that this is a gift from god?"

"No, life was… okay."

"Oh… well not me. The real world was so awful I got in to this VR thing just to escape. Wife cheating on me, son on coke, dead end job, the normal crappy life."

"Your point?" Dyrath was now getting tired of the man's complaining.

"My point is that I'm not the only one who feels that way even if you don't and soon enough when I become Overlord… I'll make sure none of us are leaving." Dyrath was about to hit the man in the face when he was stopped by a magic barrier.

"Best save that for later." Gnarl chuckled. The two men looked down to see the aged minion smiling. "it's good to see such fiery passion so early on but it is not worth much now." The minion walked away as the magic barrier faded away.

"Touchy aren't you?" Xode said as he looked at Dyrath's fist still inches from his face. "I thought we could be friends but now… oh well. You won't last the first month anyways." Xode said as he walked away from Dyrath. Dyrath looked back out on to the still large mob of undecided players. He could only think about what Xode said, that soon people will not want to leave because they have better lives here. Could he have a better life here? That was the only question in his head at the moment.

* * *

Kirito walked around the shady starting zone for the Empire Rangers, he heard a little talk from passersby that most people had either joined the army or didn't chose a class at all. Less than a tenth of players joined the Gladiators and only a little bit more chose the Sentinels.

To Kirito that wasn't good, he knew that a war was coming at some point, and the Sentinels were the primary Magic users on the Good side, the Elves had a few classes that used magic but none of them used as their primary field of study and attack. The Evil side had their Warlocks and from his time in the Bata he knew that fighting a party with a even just a decent Warlock was hard if you didn't have a fellow Magic user to back you up. Those that had joined the Class had been lucky, soon they would get very popular and likely get rich off selling their services.

Kirito entered into the bar that had the first quest for all Rangers, no one was told where it was and had to find it by word of mouth so Kirito was the first one to walk in. The place smelled like stale booze and tanned leather. It still amazed Kirito how realistic this game felt but he didn't show it, he walked right up to the bar and ordered the first part of the secret code to get into the back room. He sat there at the bar for about an hour, never taking a actual sip from the glass.

"You don't look like you're from around here?" The NPC bartended asked while rubbing down another glass, classic bartender look.

"I'm waiting for someone… he's an old war buddy."

"What war?"

"The one no ever hears about." The bartender nodded and walked over to the rusted door and with a small spell stone cleaned it up so he could open it. He nodded to Kirito as the player walked through the door. It closed behind him and rerusted. Behind the bar was a small town inside the city built into the backs of the buildings, tents and shacks filled the alley with people selling not so legal things and others working to produce the gear used by the Rangers.

Kirito would get his gear later once he had gotten enough money to get what he needed but for right now the starting tunic and pants that every Empire Player started with would be enough for the first few quests. They weren't really combat quest like later but more the annoying fetch quest that served to help new Players get their bearings.

* * *

Gilna could only stare at the green tea she held in her hand. She was one of the last ten Good elf players that had not chosen their path. She was still in shock at the news that she would not be able to return to her mom and dad. She was only seventeen, she was barely the age limit for the game.

"It's all right man… ah woman." One of the elf NPCs said to try and comfort her as they had try to do for the last few hours. All the elves were complete hippies to the extreme just like in the second game, she didn't know that, she never played the Overlord games. She only was here because her brother said that VR games were really cool and he had gotten her own NERV Gear so they could play the game together. And now she was alone. She could only cry at this. "Oh no. don't worry it going to… ohff." The elf NPC was pushed away by a player.

"She doesn't need that dumbass." The man said as he easily stared down the elf. "What she needs is a reality check. You girl, what's your name?"

"Ro…" She checked herself and remembered to say the screenname. "Gilna."

"Good, Gilna. You've had enough of the tea and soft pillows. This is happening and there's no getting around it so buck up and stand tall or you're just going to die. And if you die then you'll make whoever is waiting on the other side as sad as you are now." The man was right and Gilna knew this. His words were hard and hurt to hear but she need to hear them. After a few last tears, she stood up and followed the man to the three boats that would take her to one of the sanctuaries that would act as the hubs for the elves. The first boat would bring them to EverNight sanctuary, she would be a dreamer, able to summon constructs of dreams and nightmares. The second boat would take her to the Reborn Empire sanctuary where she would learn to be a warrior and the elven way of combat. The third would take her the Tree of Beginnings sanctuary, to become a dryad of the forest. She liked that last one, to be a part of something even if it was just a tree. As she took a step to the third boat she watched as the man walked away to the boat that would take him to the Reborn Empire. He waved back not turning as he continued to walk away.

* * *

Dyrath sat on a stone bench in the Spiral, the large stairway that connected the Dome's levels and acted as the Dome's common space as access to a Path's level is restricted to anyone not on the same Path. He had just finished Gnarl's _orientation_ , been fitted for his first set of armor, and gotten his first two minions. Dyrath was wearing black leather armor with only a few metal pieces, metal boots that went up his back calf, small metal gloves that only covered his hands, and a metal neck guard. His two new brown minions were running circles around him as he was deep in thought. He was planning out just what he wanted to do next when he noticed Honic walk over to him.

"I got your message." Honic was dressed in a sleeveless brown leather shirt covered by blacksmith smock, his legs were covered in metal armor and he carried over his shoulders a hammer as long as a spear.

"You're looking the part." Dyrath joked.

"I know right. You do to, so why'd you call me right out of the gate like this?"

"Because I'm going to need all the help I can get right away. Gnarl told us the first stage of finding the next Overlord. There will be five tournaments, and I'm going to compete in three of them, but the first thing I need to do is get in."

"You aren't already?"

"Only a hundred players can be in each tournament each, and only the top ten are going to the next stage."

"I see, and you want my help?"

"I need it; I want you to join my guild."

"Whoa… I said I'd support you for Overlord but I don't want to join any guild just yet."

"It's different than a normal guild, each of the races have their own unique guild mechanic, the Netherghuls have their own Factions, each one of the middle path Netherghuls has their own Faction and any player no matter what race can join and still be part of their own guild. A Netherghul's faction will help him become the next Overlord."

"Ah I understand, if that's the case then yeah sign me up." Dyrath invited Honic to join his Faction and Honic accepted.

"Good, now to the tournaments. The first one I want to try to get into is the trophy tournament. The main goal of it is that they will drop ten players into a zone and who ever get the most points wins. Points are given out for lots of things, like how fast you killed the monster or how big the monster is."

"Seems simple enough."

"The next one is a bit tricky, it takes place on the battlefield. A player is given command of a minion army and is told to command it in the war with the Empire. How well they do will be judged and if they lose it disqualifies them. a play can use any resources that he has at his command before and during the battle."

"This one is sounding like an RTS game."

"It could end up being like one, the last one is for you and me."

"Me?"

"Two of the tournaments are for the Netherghul and their allies, one for the Forge Fiends and one for the Warlocks. The one for the Forge Fiends is to make the best weapon and armor we can, I get the ingredients and you make it."

"They explained how crafting works and this goes with it. Three key factors work with crafting, skill, equipment, and materials."

"We'll both work on that, if we meet a Warlock we can trust we'll try for that tournament too but for right now we'll just stick to those three."

"What's the Warlock tournament like?"

"It's very open ended, basically who ever helps the Netherworld the most wins."

"So how do we get in to these tournaments?"

"They're invite only, you put your name up for which one you want and if you catch Gnarl or an important person's eye then you'll get a invite. The problem is that an invite can be taken away."

"So what's the plan now?"

"Right now, we form a party and head out into the world. Start working on our skills and stats, the tournaments aren't for a long time now, could be a year away given how Gnarl talked about it." Dyrath said as he stood up.

"I like that plan. So, where to first?"

"I was thinking a place called the Tree of Beginnings."

* * *

Kirito was resting on a small bunch in the Dead Drop Alley, the Ranger's Class HQ. SO far he was doing good, leveled up his stats a bit and was about to reach level two, it wasn't that bad for the first day.

He looked around and saw that a few more people had gotten through. It made him start to think that maybe he was the only Bata Player that had chosen the Ranger Path. He knew that over two thousand people had been part of the Bata so it was unlikely that he was the only one. But maybe most of them joined the Netherghuls in hopes of using their insider knowledge to become the next Overlord.

The Overlord… that was something that filled him with dread. It was a topic that was already starting to cause fear and panic among the Good players even on the first day. They all had been made aware that there was currently no Overlord and the big thing on the Evil side was the finding of the next one among the Netherghul Players but every Good Player knew that once the Overlord was found, all the attention would then focus on them. It helped that it was unlikely that an Overlord would be found soon and thus give the Good Side to prepare their own badass Players to fight the Overlord. But while the Evil side had the Overlord the Good side had nothing, the Emperor was more a pollical figure than anything while any Overlord would be a absolute beast on the battlefield and in a War room. All the Good Players knew they were on a timer, because once the Overlord was found… their job would get monstrously harder.

Kirito pushed these thoughts away, it didn't help him to dwell on things that shouldn't on the first day. He looked up at the sun, it was getting pretty late and things tended to get a bit harder at night. He brought up his menu and looked at the time, it was a little past eight, he had time to do one more quest.

He brought up the list of things the Hunts Master gave him to do. He had done most of the fetch quest and had finished the escort quest. Annoying that in a game this advance that you still had to done stuff like that. Then he looked at the bottom, it was a hunt quest, kill ten fighter beetles outside the Legion barracks. Low level Mobs that Kirito could kill in his sleep even at level one? Looks like he was going to be the first Ranger to hit the level two mark before midnight.

* * *

Nethlio sipped from the glass in his hand and thank whatever god out there that he chose the Evil elves. The wine was fantastic and the view out the window of his small spire home. He truly wasn't all that phased by the news that this was a death game, he mostly lived in VR anyways. He wasn't a gamer but he used Virtual Reality in his work. He was a doctor that helped people get over their fears and stress with virtual reality, he put them in an controlled environment and let them take control over their fears. This was in fact only the second VR game he played. And he only played this game because he wanted to see how people acted in VR MMO games as opposed to normal screen MMOs. The Virtual world was his true home and now it was completely. Nethlio put the glass down and walked to the mirror. His face was his own but for the ears but that was fine, his green eyes were quite misplaced amongst the black, purple, and red of the décor in his room and his clothes. He had taken the path to the first spire, the Path of the Sculptor. His job was to create the Golems that the elves of Evil used as soldiers. The other two paths didn't interest him, the second was the path of the Wraith the spies of Evil. The third path was the path of the Loremasters, to study the history and workings of the world. Nethlio wanted two things, to feel that he was needed and to survive until Evil won and he could leave. His goal was to leave, to return to his life. It was true that he felt at home in the virtual world but he had people in real life that depended on him and that was what meant most to him.

Dyrath walked through the Nether gate and on to a semi-chard grassland. Around him was medium sized Netherworld war camp. Honic was right behind him and was clearly enjoying the view of the enormous miles' high tree that stood beyond the nearby forest. Dyrath didn't care for the tree, he was more instead in the camp itself. All around him were minions running between the various tents. Some of the minions were carrying crates or weapons, this is what a war camp looked like.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Honic said about the game.

"Yeah, too bad we can't enjoy it and leave. Come on let's get moving, we need to work on our stats as best we can." Dyrath said as he walked into the camp with Honic behind him.

"So what kind of play style you going for? I'm thinking of working on this Forge Hammer for combat and weapon making as my crafting specialty." Honic smiled as he followed his leader. He had missed talking shop about skills and stats with someone that would actually care, most of the people he played online games with only really cared about was what he could do for them. but Dyrath actually listened, Honic could tell he was even though his face was still the same blank expression he had on most of the time.

"Don't put all your points in one crafting skill, put some point in others so you can use combo skills." Dyrath had been planning to find a crafting ally far before he turned on his NERV gear, so he knew all about the crafting. He knew basically everything there was to know about this game. The only people who knew more were those that made the game and the Bata testers. It still stung him that he wasn't chosen to be one. "As for me, I'm going with an axe as my weapon of choice… but I'm not going for the combat skills that hard."

"Why not… every Overlord needs to be good at combat."

"I'm not going to ignore it, but I'm just more of a brains over brawn guy." Dyrath pulled up his menu and moved over to his skill list and showed Honic his current Skills.

Dark Charmer: _Your Evil aura gives you a regal and charming look to you. Any of weak mind will fall before your sly will._ NPC under this Skill's level will almost always agree with you, any NPC over the Skill's level will be able resist you but will still be under the skill's power. NPC's of the opposite sex will have a 15% chance of being put under the Skill's power regardless of level. Current level- level Two

Axe User: _Training with the deadly Axe has given you better knowledge at how to wield it. You are on the path of the executioner now._ Attacks with any Axe class weapons now do 10% more damage and system assist is at Level two when using Axes.

Lore Master: _There is much about the world you don't already know and what you don't will soon be found_. Thank you for playing Overlord and Overlord 2. You have been given this Skill as a thank you for your support. Extra Menu slide, Lore. All Lore and Secrets are now recorded for you to view later.

"That last one is a bit bittersweet." Dyrath said with a sigh.

"I'll say, so how'd you get the Dark Charmer one anyways?"

"It's one of the three starter Skills the Middle Path Netherghuls get." Dyrath closed his menu and watched as several more Players came out of the Nether Gate. Most of them were Minion Players and the rest were Elf players. It was then he noticed that he and Honic were the only Netherghul Players in the camp at the moment. Several of the Minion Players saw the two and began crowding around them. they were all asking questions about the Netherghuls and a few of them were asking to join up with them. The Elf Players just hanged back but were just as interested. Dyrath figured that the other two races must now see the Netherghuls as celebrities, especially the Overlord candidates. After all, one of them would be ruling over them all in the future. Honic was enjoying the attention more than Dyrath was but that didn't mean Dyrath wasn't playing politian a little bit. After a half hour went by and a few more Netherghul Player walked through the Gate did the crowd around Dyrath and Honic die down. The Minion Players moved on and so did some of the Elves, but three Elves only then approach the two.

"Well that was certainly interesting." One of the two female Elf Players said in a fairly low tone but was still quite feminine.

"It sure was Evith." The other female said, this one a bit more peppy then the other. The Male only nodded in agreement. The three were all dressed in the same black, red, and purple colors but only the first female and the male were dressed in sleek curved armor as appose to the Netherghul's barbed and angular armor. The other female was dressed in lightly trimmed robes that could barely be called that due to how short they were cut.

"You two are the first of the Netherghuls we have seen." The one called Evith said as the three walked up to Dyrath and Honic.

"Same goes here, how's being an Elf?" Dyrath asked quite interested.

"Oh it has its perks, but it doesn't compare to you two."

"Then why did you chose the Elves?" This had bugging Dyrath since he entered the Netherworld, why was the Netherghul in the minority of Players.

"Because of the competition, there can only be one overlord and I didn't want to deal with it." Evith said with a shrug. "Truth be told I'm happy with my choice even more now that we know this is a death game."

"I chose my race because I liked the look." The peppy girl said and then ignored the disappointed glares from the real gamers.

"I didn't know that you had to be a Netherghul to be Overlord." The male said in a shockingly low tone.

"Well now you Kipton." Evith said shaking her head.

"So you seen Queen Fay yet?" Honic asked and Kipton seemed to stand even straighter at the mention at the name. "I take that as a yes?"

"Oh we saw her, she has a certain way with the boys." The other girl said with a slight smile.

"Jea! You will not speak that way our Queen." Evith said sternly with Kipton glaring at her.

"Don't be so serious."

"Anyways… it was a pleasure speaking with you, I hope the next time we meet it will be facing the worthless trash of our cousin Elves." Evith said before the three began walking away.

"It seems we made some fans." Honic said smiling as he watched the three walk away.

"Yes… we'll need more of them though."

* * *

Kirito sliced through the ninth fighter beetle. It wasn't that hard to kill the things so long as you were fast enough. And Kirito had yet to find the Battle Healing Skill so he needed to be fast as he still had the basic clothes on.

As he went through the loot window he noticed that the sun was setting and would soon end his first day in the Death Game. He wondered how his sister was doing, had they found him in his bed yet? His family knew enough about gaming from listening in on him watching TV stories about VR to know that you shouldn't take the gear off. Even though the normal reaction is a simple headache and the dulling of senses but he should be safe until they found out from the News.

He leaned back on a nearby rock, it looked like it had only been recently been here. Maybe it was one of the boulders throw at the last Overlord when he invaded the city in the second game. The idea made Kirito chuckle a bit as he looked back at the massive walled city.

He pushed himself off the rock, he still needed to find the last fighter beetle. Kirito was so distracted by the thoughts of home and the sights around him that he didn't hear the small snarls of the dire wolf creeping up right behind him on the elevated hill.

"Hey Watch Out!" That was enough warning to save Kirito as he turned around to see the lunging wolf just in time to block the first and maybe deadly move. Kirito's sword held back the wolf's claws while Kirito tried to keep his head away form the snapping jaws. A moment later the wolf was launched back by the strike of the man who had warned him. Kirito looked up at the huge dark skinned man as he held out a hand to help him up.

"Thanks…" Kirito said as he took the hand. "But I don't think it's finished." Kirito said as the two of them looked back the reading dire wolf.

"Yeah, but I don't think its going to be much trouble for the two of us." The man chuckled in a deep tone that still felt confident and warm. "Name's Agil by the way."

"Kirito."

* * *

Condard pulled his sword out from the troll's face, its blade completely covered in blood. He jumped off the dead ton of blubber and motioned for Reborn soldiers to clean it up. He was a gladiator player, one of the four paths an Empire Player could take. And in the race that held the most of the Good Players this was the least taken Path in the whole game. It was a no brainer why, it was the Path that could and would get you killed if you didn't have the stomach to do anything in a fight to win. And Condard would win, that was what he was going to do. Win. Win. Win. That was the only thing going through his head in a fight. He looked up at the audience and raised his sword in the air and roared. The crowd roared with him and he turned toward the only person that really mattered. His eyes meet the Emperor's and Condard looked back at the ground in defeat. Once again he had lost to this man who he knew was only a computer program but still. Win. Win. Win. It rung through his mind as he walked back to the barracks.

* * *

Authors notes.

So that was day one of DDO for the Players. And now we got Agil working with his buddy Kirito.

Thanks to Chad015 for the Skills idea


	3. Chapter 3

Kirito hopped down to the next level of the ruin. He was trying to find his way to his very prized Battle Healing Skill, which should be the reward for the hidden quest he was on. The Skill itself was an uncommon one even late in the beta test but he and a few other Rangers had found where to get it real early in the game.

He had spent the last two weeks training and preparing for this little excursion down into the ruins of the old Imperial Palace. The whole area was a dead zone, a place with no monsters and no marked quests. But, there were reasons to come here. Hidden among the ruins and in very deep areas there were hidden quests, one unmarked by a Player's log. It could be a scrap of paper or even something one NPC said one time. But because they were unmarked and not advertised to general population of Players, many of the Beta testers saw these areas as gold mines.

Kirito didn't really care and would likely let the secret sip once he had what he wanted. In the Palace was a room that severed as a store room for the former Grand Sentinel Rose. In there was a single vile of magic that granted the drinker the Battle Healing Skill. Once you had the skill, your health would regain like it normally did even in combat.

This could be invaluable to a Ranger, most Rangers either used long range or stealth and thus always had high damage but low defense. But the Battle Healing Skill changed that. Kirito could fight in close combat with a sword, using the high damage Rangers possessed, and won't have to worry too much about his health bar. For this plan to work he would need to spend a lot of his Stat points towards his Fortitude. The higher that was, the more health he had and the faster he would gain it back.

Kirito squeezed through a broken door frame that was the only opening he could find into the tower of the palace.

"Okay… if I remember right, the store room should be at the…" Kirito looked up at the ruined stairway, parts of it simply just blasted off. "… top of the tower."

* * *

Dyrath watched the rotating boar roast over the fire. He was so hungry. He missed the treatment they received back at the war camp, the warm cots and good food.

"Hey!" Dyrath said as one of his minions tried to grab at the legs. "That's not for you! Go find a rat or squirrel."

"Yay! Squirrely!" The minions ran off to go look for their meal.

"They still are in high spirits." Honic chuckled.

"They're minions of course they're doing good." Dyrath said as he stirred the meat. "We've been out here for two weeks; I'm beginning to think we need to head back to camp."

"No, we go back now and all those Netherghuls back at the camp will see you as weak. We took a quest five levels above our own so we could get ahead of the curb."

"But we've been out here for weeks, by now people have already leveled up enough to take the quest we're on normally."

"No way…" Honic pulled up the quest window. "We're going to get a butt load of XP, enough for four level ups and with that you'll be able to level up your Dark Charmer skill and I'll level up one of mine. I was looking at the quests back at camp and none of them held the XP reward this one had. Even if its's been two weeks, the quest back at the camp were giving not even a tenth of the XP we're going to get from this quest. If we get this one done soon we'll be the highest level players in the whole Tree of Beginnings zone."

"Fine then… lets go over the battle plan after we eat." They watched the meat carefully, neither of them had a cooking skill so they needed to be careful as they didn't have access to the Cooking system and could only cook things with real world rules. It had taken them two days to find the boar in the forest and they weren't going to lose the meal because they burned it and lost the item. As the boar turned slightly brown they both watched it as they slowly stopped rotating the boar. Honic quickly move the meat away from fire.

"Finally! We get to eat!" Honic said as Dyrath readied his axe to cut the cooked boar. But as Dyrath took his first swing the boar disappeared in a blurred flash. Dyrath and Honic stared at the stump that the boar had been resting on and then looked at the rustling bushes on the east side of the small camp they had. "Dyrath? What just happened?"

"Some jackass stole our dinner!" Dyrath ran in the direction of the bushes and began chasing the thief. Honic and Dyrath's minions following behind him. The thief darted between the trees trying to shake off the pissed off Netherghul but Dyrath was keeping pace with the thief. Unfortunately for the thief unlike many of the Netherghuls who chose heavy armor and strong attacks, Dyrath went for speed over strength. Dyrath rushed past the vines and tree trunks off the First Forest, the ocean of trees that surrounded the Tree of Beginnings. More than ever right now he was hoping not to run in to any Good Elf players. When he first arrived, he was quite shocked that this zone was not just one of the three starting locations for Evil players but also was one the Good Elf's Path Hub location. Of course the Evil Players could never hope to get in to the Good Players' Hub but they would be starting in the same zone and would fight if they saw each other. Dyrath thought it was a bit sadistic to pit Players like that so early in the game. So far he had been lucky and hadn't had to fight any Players though he had seen a few. They seemed to be spilt into two different groups. The males, who looked like elves but with bark for skin and a few branches growing out of them. And the females, who look similar to the Dryads of the second game but far more humanoid in shape. Dyrath wasn't thinking about that right now, all he could think about as getting the meat back from whoever stole it and he was about to. This whole time he wasn't just following the thief, he was also commanding his minions to move in front of what he thought the thief's path was. Fortunately, he was right and the thief was caught off guard when tripped by the minions. The minion jumped and grabbed on to the slightly long limbed figure and began biting and pulling. Dyrath walked over and picked up the pole that the boar had been skewered on. The minions pulled the thief down to its knees

"Masta! We gots da thief!" One of the minions said as it jumped up and down with excitement.

"Good… let's see what we have here." Dyrath walked over to the thief and understood just how this all happened. The thief was a Green Alpha-minion player. "You're a Player." Dyrath looked over the Player, his skin was dark but it had started turning a bit green. His teeth had already grew fangs and his hair had begun to grow a bit barbed. His hands and feet were clawed and his ears had grown to minion length and shape. He wore very little armor but instead was wearing beginner level clothes but not the clothes that Minion Players began with so this told Dyrath that he had made a bit of money to buy some better gear.

"Yeah I am. So you going to let me go or what?" The minion player said in a deep Brooklyn accent. Dyrath looked at the man's Player Icon, it was orange, this wasn't the first time he had stolen something from an Evil Player. Crimes against different Alignments wasn't counted even murder was fine so long as the player wasn't on the same side. This was expected by Dyrath but not liked, they weren't going to punish someone for murder, worst of all soon it was going to be celebrated. But this player was only a thief, and a good one at that. Most likely from being a green, but what was strange was why he needed to steal in the first place. A Green Minion Player could easily find something to eat, they didn't even need to worry about poisonous plants.

"Why'd you steal this." Dyrath asked nodding to the boar on his shoulder.

"Was hungry."

"You couldn't find something to find on your own? You're a green, you can eat just about anything in this forest." The Minion Player didn't respond. "You knew that right?"

"Yeah I knew that!" It was clear to Dyrath that he was lying.

"Then why'd you steal our food."

"I was bored." The Minion player said bluntly.

"… okay." Dyrath didn't really know how to respond to this. "so… you stole our food because you were bored?"

"Bored and hungry."

"I really should be mad right now but I'm not…" Dyrath said as he looked at the meat. "You're coming with me."

"What?" The Minion Player was genuinely shocked. "You're just going turn me in."

"Nope, you're going to come with me and we're going to eat dinner." Dyrath began walking back to small camp he and Honic built. As his minions pulled the Player behind him he messaged Honic to head back to the camp. Honic was already waiting for him when he came through the tree line.

"Is that sumbitch that stole our dinner?!" Honic said as he stood up.

"Yes it is, but don't hurt him." Dyrath said as he sat the Player down on a stump with his minions running around him. "He's going to have dinner with us."

"What? Your letting the guy who stole our food that took us two whole days of hunting eat with us?" Honic said moving between the Player and the meat.

"Move out of the way." Dyrath sighed.

"Yeah… move out of the away chubby." The Player said smiling.

"That was uncalled for." Honic said fairly upset at being call chubby.

"Okay you be quite…" Dyrath stared at the Player. "and you sit down." Dyrath stared down Honic until the Forge Fiend backed down and sat on a nearby log. "Good, now let's eat."

* * *

Klein sat around the campfire with the friends he had spent two days in line with to get this game. It was a good thing that they all had the same sense of humor or those two days would have been the bane of them.

Klein and company, no for real, they all had joined the same company of soldiers. So Klein and company were currently stuck in the foothills of the Capital lands. They had been ordered to kill off three whole packs of Dire Wolves. While the Players had the numbers and we're an organized fighting force… the enemy was still packs of Dire Wolves! One or two were no problem for a group of six but not a whole pack's worth.

They had been luck so far, they found the first pack and one of the wolves had already been killed by some other player and two of the other members had left, likely to find something to eat. Even the monsters in this game had a health bar that would slowly start to lose points if they didn't eat. And then the second pack was already being killed off by some other group, and thankfully they let Klein's group share in the credit. Klein and his friends were trying to find a way to get their last pack.

In all honesty, Klein wasn't having that bad a time. While the quest was very dangerous it gave out quite the reward. Wolf Pelt trophies for the whole group. Trophies were very rare this early in the game, or at least that's what his buddy Kirito said in his messages on the subject. Taking one last sigh Klein stood up.

"Hey, we all know that the chances are slim but I know we can do it!"

"But Klein… we just don't have the numbers to take on a full pack."

"Then we'll even the odds a little… we'll use our brains and figure out a plan of attack."

* * *

Condard simply stared at the concrete inches from his face. He was in the Gladiator barracks laying on his cot. It had been two weeks since this death game started and he didn't give a shit about it. He had become one of the best fighters in the arena and he didn't give a shit about that either. There was one thing on his mind. A few days ago one of the other Players killed themselves and it got Condard thinking. He didn't know the guy, but it still made him think. Why didn't he care about the fact any day now he could die? Why was he so focused on impressing someone he knew was a computer program? He had thought about these things but couldn't come up with an answer.

"Hey… Condard!" A voice came from the upper bunk above his. "I heard that they're going to be picking people out for a chance at an Officer position." A girl poked her head out of the upper bunk, a smile wide across her face. "I know for sure you and I will make but the rest of these losers I don't know."

"Elis quit talking." Condard said as he turned over to face the concrete wall.

"Oh don't be like that." Elis said she dropped from her bunk. "Cony, Cony, Cony…" She repeated as she poked Condard's side. Out of all the people she could have grown attached to it had to be him. She was a small girl barely five-foot-tall, she somehow found Condard and without his input chose him to follow around. "Come on Cony get out of bed! You need to get out of bed!"

"All right enough!" Condard said as he threw the tattered cloth he called a blanket on to Elis. Condard slowly got out of the small bunk and began stretching. "Fine I'm out of bed, now tell me why."

"Because… I don't know. Come on…" Elis said before running towards the common area of the barracks. Condard sighed then began to follow the hyperactive player though he was stopped at the door by two huge players.

"Boya and Gro, what do you two want?" These two simply screamed _Henchmen_ in Condard's mind. Both were just under seven feet tall and both had the kinds of bodies that most people had faked at the start of this death game.

"It's not what they want, it's what you want." A voice came from behind the two mountains of muscle.

"I've told you before Todric I'm not joining your Order."

"Oh but why not?" The small man said as he slipped pass the two human trolls. "Condard, Condard, Condard. You may be the favorite of the crowd but down here that makes you enemies." Todric pulled in close to Condard putting his arm around Condard like they had be good friends for years. "You need someone looking out for you. Someone to make sure you get the best fights, like that one their planning right now."

"What are they planning?"

"Oh nothing, it's just they captured a few Minion Players a few days ago in Frozen Wastes. They arrived today." Todric smiled as he began baiting Condard. "Trolls and Harpies only get you so far… but to really prove yourself you're going to need to do something truly impressive."

"It's murder." Condard growled.

"Oh you can't think like that… we may be Good Players but that by no means does that make us saints. Even before this became a death game we knew we would have to kill other, it's just now it's a bit more permanent. And if you ever want to impress Empress Juno then you're going to prove that you can do anything." Condard glared at Todric with eyes burring of hate. "Your asking yourself how'd I figure out your little secret. That you had somehow fallen for a computer program. Trust me I understand, if I found a girl with a rack like that…" Todric couldn't finish his sentence after being slammed into wall with Condard's hand on his neck. Todric thought he would be quickly freed by his guards but he looked up to see a knife to each of their necks.

"Hi Todric!" Elis said from behind the back of Gro having climbed up his back and just barely holding on with her legs while her hands were busy holding her knives.

"Oh shit…" Todric gasped out as Condard's hand tightened.

"Hey Cony I don't think that's a good idea. Red players can only fight criminals and the Emperor and Empress don't come to those fights that often." With that Condard's grip loosened until Todric's neck fell but Condard caught Todric's greasy hair.

"If I ever hear you talk about Empress Juno like that again I will make your life a living hell." Condard dropped Todric ground.

"Funny, that's what I'm going to do to you right now. You think you can get that Minion match now, forget it! I make sure you get nothing but Gnomes." Todric said as he stumbled away with his henchmen behind him.

* * *

Kirito hopped over the gorge and into the east half of the tower. He just had one last level until he reached the store room. The only problem was the logic puzzle that had to be completed to open the door.

The door to the store room had nine blue orbs placed into it. And the only way to open it was to press them all in the correct order. The order changed every time it was completed or failed and each time someone failed the test it would stay locked for a full day. Kirito was not going to wait another whole day. In one of the other rooms was a note that explained the rules of the logic puzzle. The first was that the correct orb couldn't be next to the last one. Two was that it never started with a corner orb. A corner orb never repeated after another. And the center always came last.

Kirito eventually was standing in front of the door. The first orb was already green. It was bottom one. That gave Kirito two options, either the right corner or the left. This is what made him nervous, at this point it was more a good guess than anything else. Hoping to be right he pressed the right orb.

"Damn it!" Kirito yelled out as the orb turned red.

* * *

Dyrath took bite out of the leg of boar he had cut, it was a bit under cooked but he didn't care. It was good to have meat again. As Dyrath chewed he watch the newcomer with great interest. Honic was also watching the Minion Player but to simply make sure that he didn't steal the rest of the boar.

"You two going stare at me the whole time we eat?" The Player asked before swallowing.

"Just making sure you don't run off with Our food."

"Not like you need the extra calories."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Honic. Don't be so sensitive, and you shut up." Dyrath said like a parent keeping kids from fighting. "So you have a name?"

"Remus… don't think I don't know what you're doing. You just want me to join up with you guys."

"No." Honic replied.

"Yes." Dyrath replied.

"Since he's the Netherghul I'm going with his answer. And I've thought about since you guys gave me this meal… and I think I'm going to accept."

"What?! Why?" Honic said with shock in his voice.

"Every other Player as treated me like shit once I got this orange icon, one group even beat me until my health bar reached red. You guys are the first ones to treat me like a human being."

"Technically you're a Minion human hybrid." Dyrath interjected.

"Yeah I don't play to role play, the only reason why I chose this game and not something not filled to the brim with stupid fake shit is because this was the newest MMO and I thought I could meet some hot gamers." Remus smiled at that. "But once shit hit the fan my plan was to simply ride the whole thing out until someone else won the whole damn thing."

"And now?"

"Oh that plan hasn't changed, I just plan to do it not alone."

"Well I plan on becoming Overlord." Dyrath said not happy with the assumption that they would do the same thing.

"And I plan on making the axe that chops the Emperor's head off." Honic also not happy but for many other reasons.

"Oh… fine then. That just means I can ride this thing out in style once we make you the Overlord." Remus said as slouched back smiling even bigger.

"Well I'm glad you've decided to join." Dyrath said he invited Remus to the party and his Faction. After Remus accepted the Invite his name was added to small list under Dyrath health bar. "Now that we have three people I think we can do the quest no problem now."

"What quest is that?" Remus said before ripping off another bite of meat.

"We took a bit of a risk and took the highest level quest being offered." Dyrath said as he began chopping off more of the boar, this time for his Minions. "But hasn't been working out so well."

"The quest is to infiltrate the nearby temple and kill the priestesses there. Their loss will be quite severe to the elves moral. Not only that but there might be a spell stone in the temple." Honic said before going over the current map.

"So our job is kill the targets and hopefully find a spell stone."

"The temple is about two hours away from right here."

"So why haven't you guys finished the quest yet?"

"The temple is filled with guards and the head priestess is a Boss, we simply couldn't do it at our current level. But with you here…" Remus looked up from his next bite at Dyrath. "… with your speed you could take out the guards with my Minions while Honic and I take on the Priestesses."

"You want me to fight all those hippies by myself? Your crazy."

"You'll have my Minions." Remus looked down at three Minions fight over the leg of boar Dyrath had given them, one experimenting on how hot fire is, and the last pick his nose.

"Really… oh I feel safer already."

"When you get doe with the guards I'm bring my minions back and you go look for the spell stone but don't touch it. It might be better suited to either me or Honic more."

"Fine I get the plan let's just finish eating."

* * *

"For the last time it will be done when its finished." Nethlio said as chiseled at the almost finished golem in the middle of this his small workshop.

"Well it's been two weeks and you're the only sculptor that has yet to tribute a work to the Netherworld army." A elven man by the doorway said as he tapped his foot impatiently.

"Well I'm going for quality here!" Nethlio yelled back.

"We don't need perfect just a sample of your work. We want to get the contracts going as soon as possible!" Nethlio had been getting people like this for the past few days now. It was true that he and a few others were slowing down the Sculptor class because they wanted to put out their best. But this wasn't entirely the case. He and the others simply opted for better tools than the bigger workshops that could allow for more people. He was by himself and that meant he could only do so much. "If you don't finish by tomorrow then I'm going to have take you off the contract workers list…"

"No!" Nethlio jumped down from the ladder he was on and walked over to the man. "listen, I promise that it will be done within three days. Three days, that's all I need." The man looked at Nethlio and then at the golem, it was very impressive compared to the other ones he had seen. It was made mostly of solid gray stone with the exception being the arms being made of purple crystal. The body was a solid build with seamless curves and the head was built into the body well. Most of the other golems he had seen had been very poorly made, a few had even been made out of dirt.

"Very well, three days." The man walked out of the workshop and as he walked through the door another came through.

"Looks like you were able to keep Krendar off your back for a little while longer." The new man said he walked over to Nethlio. "Damn! Looks like you're going all out on your tribute."

"Yeah… I just don't want to do bad work."

"It's not like you really need to go all out, this tribute is just to help with who gets what contract options. They don't just look at the quality of the golem but how long it took to make it."

"Thanks Omarica, but I'm going to make each and every Golem as best I can."

"Yeah, we like that in that regard… but you didn't need to make the thing so damn big."

* * *

Gilna walked through the large stone arch that was the entrance to the elven temple on the outskirts of the forest. She was marveling at the stone work that was underneath the moss and vines. She had gone through much in the two weeks that went by, her body had changed the most. She had become a dryad seedling, her skin was turning green and leaves had begun sprouting around her body to form natural clothes. Her entire appearance seemed very close to the true Dryads she was learning from. She was with her party to drop off food and supplies to the priestesses. She didn't know her party members for long but was hopeful that would change.

"Hey Gilna quit daydreaming!" One of her party members yelled from the top of the stone stairs.

"Oh… coming Reglin." Gilna said as she snapped out of her thoughts. She quickly walked up the stairs to join the party. There was five in total, her of course, another dryad player named Helena and three Barkers. Barkers were the male player version of the Dryad, where the Dryad were more like plants the Barkers were like trees or at least that's what Gilna thought. The five walked to the main alter in the temple where a very obese elven woman waited.

"Oh great priestess of the mother goddess…" The one called Reglin said hiding most of his disgust of the woman. "We come baring gifts from the Treefolk."

"About time, we grow hungry and to do so is an insult to the mother goddess." The priestess said in a much deeper voice than what was the normal range for a woman. Even Gilna was hiding a bit of disgust for the waste of life. "Bring the gifts to the central chamber and be off, you must not be here during the feeding." At that the party began pulling directing the wagons of food to the inner temple. Gilna and one of the Barkers standing outside when a few screams came from the front of the temple. Then a green flash cut through the guards while more screams came from the entrance.

"Well hello there." A smooth accented voice came from behind Gilna and the Barker. "Never knew the Elf Players would such good company." Gilna and the Barker turned behind them but whoever was there quickly disappeared. Something else flew between them and caused an explosion that brought the gates to the inner temple crashing down trapping the rest of Gilna's party. The two good players turned to see three Evil Players walking up the stairs. A lightly armored Netherghul holding in both arms an axe that could cut through most of the tree trunks in the forest, a Forge Fiend leaning on the trademark forge hammer and holding several magic grenades it was clear that it was him that trapped Gilna's party, and the third was a Green Minion Player but he was only there for a second to talked to the other two. The third Evil player disappeared in a flash and the other two began moving towards the priestesses.

"You two!" The Netherghul called out to Gilna and her party mate. "if you don't want to die today then just stay back!"

"Like hell!" The Barker yelled out before running at the Evil Players.

"Lincus!" Gilna whimpered in fear of seeing her companion die before her. The Netherghul dropped under the Barker Player's blade and with a quick upper cut sent him flying in the air for a few seconds. Five brown minions began surrounding the Good player, Gilna looked away not wanting to see her companion get torn apart but to her surprise when she opened her eyes she saw that the minions were merely holding the player down.

"Stay there…" The Netherghul said to the trapped man. "… and you just stay out of this." The Netherghul said not looking at Gilna. There was no threat in his voice but more of a warning. Gilna dropped to the ground unable to stand from the sight of the battle unfolding. The two Netherghul Players began fighting the Priestesses and after a few minutes the third Player joined them. After the third joined the battle went sour for the Priestesses who had the upper hand before. As the Head Priestesses found herself alone she turned to Gilna and was about to ask for help but was cut mid-sentence as the Netherghul's axe impaled her bloated belly. As the Netherghul pulled out his axe he turned to the other three and as they talked a quest window opened, they seemed to get excited at this. The three began to walk out but before they reached the stairs the Netherghul asked the Forge Fiend for magic grenade. The Netherghul walked over to Gilna. Tears ran across her face as he approached she could only dread whatever he had planned for her. "Here." The Netherghul dropped the grenade in front of Gilna. "to get your friends out of there. Don't use it until five minutes after we leave." Gilna looked up at the Netherghul and was surprised at what she saw, he wasn't a rotting zombie like some of the other Good Players said, he looked like a person, was almost handsome just a bit average but that was better because handsome was a little intimidating. The Netherghul walked away and joined his fellow Evil Players as they walked out of the temple followed by the minions a few minutes later. Gilna simply sat there as the Barker Player took the grenade and threw it at the collapsed gate freeing the rest of the party.

* * *

Guidebook To DDO

The Frozen Wastes- Once called Nordberg by the world, the lands of the north are now dripped in Evil. Ever since the last Overlord conquered his former home the land has become a land devoted to the Netherworld. The once small town of Nordberg has become a towering Netherworld city. The city acts as the both the beachhead into the surface world for the armies of the Overlord but also where most of the Life Force that births the minion armies is harvested. Great numbers of seals are farmed to give the numbers to Netherworld requires in order to wage war on the surface world.

Empress Juno- The once mistress of the last Overlord had always been more interested in fame and fortune than Evil itself. So when the Overlord disappeared with mistress Kelda, mistress Juno fled the Netherworld and _somehow_ became the wife of the now Emperor of the Reborn Empire. She now is considered one of the worst traitors to the Netherworld and rumor has it that the greens who were especially close to the mistress now hunt her from the shadows and have made it their mission to kill the traitor.


	4. Chapter 4

Condard was eating in the barracks mess hall. He had gotten used to the food over the weeks he had been trapped in the death game. It wasn't that different than the food he had in the soup kitchens he often went to in IRL. For some reason his mind had been returning to the real world. Elis was under the stone tables playing with her food and no one dared even sit near him either because they feared him or Todric. As Condard stared into the gruel that was his meal he wondered how long it was until his sister found his body. What did she feel when she learned that her son wasn't trapped in a game world but instead her homeless brother was. He was able to think about this much longer because three officers of the Legion walked in to the mees hall and walked over to him. Everyone else watched the three silver armored men walk across the dirty mess hall completely focused in their duty.

"Gladiator Condard." The middle officer said frim.

"Yes sir?"

"Our Emperor and Empress wish to know why they have not seen you on the arena the last few days. They wish to know why you fight gnomes and imps when you are worthy of so much more."

"I give deepest apologies to the Emperor and Empress, I do not know why I have not been given the fights that they deserve." He knew why, Todric had kept his word and somehow rigged the selection office to give Condard the weaker fights. But Condard wasn't about to let anyone know that he had the power to do that, people would be stampeding to him for his favor.

"We will look in to this matter however… we first must make sure you blade have not gone dull." Condard looked up at the officers. "Several day ago our forces captured eight Alpha-Minions and we brought them here to the arena. No one has been able to defeat them."

"So the Emperor himself has arranged for you to fight them tonight. If you succeed you will be made champion of the arena and be given a war band under the service of the Legion." Condard looked back at his meal, thoughts of the real world simply evaporated from his mind. The Emperor had cast his challenge to him and if Condard could win this match then he would have beaten the man he had set out to beat. He knew it would be a small victory after a long line of defeat but it could start something new. The three officers walked away and after the left the room Elis began talking nonstop about how excited she was for him but Condard wasn't listening. There was only one word on his mind.

* * *

The return to the Netherworld war camp was nothing short of greatly satisfying for the three Players. The effects of the loss of the mother goddess priestess was almost immediate, for the first time since any Evil player arrived on the Tree of Beginnings zone the Netherworld forces were able to take ground in the forest itself. The temple where the priestess had been was quickly taken and turned into a base for the Evil Elves to start bringing in their golems, several surrounding caves were occupied by Minions, and Green minions had already set up a new Hive. Not only did Dyrath and his party receive a ton of XP but now they were pampered and treat like heroes.

"Ahhhhhh… this is wonderful." Honic said as dipped into the hot bath in the party's tent. "Dyrath you got to get your own bath it feels great." Honic said to Dyrath on the other side of the wooden wall that separated the _bathroom_ from the rest of the tent.

"Maybe later…" Dyrath was nearby on a small couch of pillows that had been looted from the elves. He was reading a book on the rise of the Reborn Empire. "… by the way did Remus tell you where he was going?"

"He said something about finding some um… pleasant company."

"Those weren't his exact words I take it?" Dyrath said smiling not looking up from his book

"Fuck no. I just didn't want to repeat what he said." Dyrath smiled at this as he finished the book he was reading. He opened his menu as he had not distribuend the point he gained from his _five_ level ups. He now was currently at level eight, Honic was right all along no other Player had even reached level six when the three had returned to the war camp. Dyrath put all his Skill points in his Dark Charmer skill bringing up to level three. He didn't have any other Growth Skills so he couldn't put them anywhere else and he didn't really feel like saving them. His stats had received a boost as well.

"Well what do we have here?" Dyrath looked up from his menu to see Gnarl walking in to the tent. "I thought it might be you."

"Gnarl? What are you doing out on the battlefield?" Dyrath said as he stood up.

"This isn't exactly the battlefield, in fact I heard that has moved a bit farther away thanks to you. But to answer your question I was bored… being there's no Overlord I find myself without anything to do. All of my normal chores have been taken care of by Netherghuls trying to gain my favor. So I wanted to see the one who gave the pointy eared huggers the kick in the pants we needed for a while."

"Thank you for thinking of us sir but's it's not necessary, after all it's too early to be…"

"Would you shut up!" Honic said covering Dyrath's mouth with his hand wearing only a towel to cover his lower regions. "We'll take all the favor you want to give Lord Gnarl."

"Ha, it's always good to have an ass kisser under your command." Gnarl laughed as he hobbled towards the tent's exit.

"Wait Gnarl… can you tell if you've heard anything about a Netherghul named Xode?" Dyrath said pushing Honic away.

"Ah, that's the fleabag that you tried to thump when you first became a Netherghul."

"Yes he is."

"Well that particular deady went to the Frozen Wastes. Most recently he has fallen out of favor with the Netherworld Nobles after he messed up and got all the Alpha-Minions under his command captured by the Empire. But there are rumors going around that this was all part of a plan to get spies into the Reborn Empire's capitol… who knows if the rumors are true and he succeeds then he'll be on the fast track to being the favorite candidate."

"Damn… I hope it's just rumors."

"My advice to you, you need more people supporting you, you maybe the local hero now but soon that will be gone. Take the opportunity while it lasts." Gnarl said before walking out of the tent. Both Honic and Dyrath released their breath as the minion left the tent.

"You know the little imp is right." A new voice came from behind them. The two men turned to see Evith standing in back doorway of the tent. Honic quickly remembered just how little he was wearing and ran behind the divider for cover.

"Evith, how's things going?"

"Things are going good, now that we have our own base camp we can start bringing in our golems."

"About damn time, you elves need to start picking the slack around here." Dyrath joked and Evith laughed along with him. "So how's the rest of your party?"

"Jea and Kipton are doing fine, we added a Red Minion player too. Some hotshot Netherghul tried to get us to join up with him but when we refused it's like we pulled the plug on his grandmother or something."

"Okay, note to self Evith has dark sense of humor." Dyrath thought to himself.

"But we said no because we had someone else in mind."

"Me? Really, I was just some Netherghul you met."

"Well you have something about you. So we were hoping if we could join your Faction, not as allies either, we want full membership." Dyrath didn't really want to give anyone outside his party full membership just yet, but he could tell that Evith and her friends really wanted this. Not only that but he needed to grow fast in order to keep up Xode, Dyrath couldn't live with himself if that jackass became Overlord.

"Fine, your in." Dyrath pulled up his Faction window and invited Evith's party to his Faction as full members.

"Yay!" Jea shouted as she ran in to the tent and hugged Dyrath.

"Jea that was a bit uncalled for." Evith said as she pulled Jea off Dyrath. Kipton soon came in the tent followed by a Red Minion Player. The Red Minion Player seemed to be a bit uncomfortable in the small tent. Her skin had turned bright red and bit scaly, a pair of horns had begun to form just above her ears and her hands had started to grow claws though not as sharp or large as Remus's. "Dyrath this is Kiari."

"Hi… oh yeah. Honic! Get dressed already!" Dyrath yelled out to his friend on the other side of the divider wall.

"I know damn it, it's not like other games where you can just tap on your menu and it just appears on." Honic said as he struggled to get his clothes on in a hurry and it wasn't helping that he could hear the others laughing.

* * *

Gilna sat in her small room that she had been given when she arrived at the Tree of Beginnings. She quietly sipped her tea as she waited for her party mates to finish yelling at her. she wasn't listening anyways; they were yelling at her about things that she couldn't change.

"You could have done something! Anything! Anything but just sit there and cry!" The Barker Player that had fought the Netherghul yelled at her.

"No your wrong Lincus, if she would have done something then she would be dead, she should have gotten us free. But you didn't free us! You just sat there while Lincus almost got killed." Reglin yelled just as angry as Lincus. The other Barker Player was simply siting near by but Gilna could tell he was just as mad; he had not spoken to her or even looked at her since they had returned to the Hub. The only other dryad in the group had been barred from this meeting because the three males thought she would be too soft on her fellow dryad. The two continued to yell and berate her until this had gone on for a few hours. Around the time the sun began to set the three left the room with a slam of the door. Gilna looked at her only window to look at the smoke rising from the edge of the forest, there was no doubt this was from the Evil players making their move again. She had heard the talk around the Hub that ever since the loss of the temple and the priestess that the Evil Players had begun to take ground in the forest itself. It had been four day since they lost the battle at the temple and if they didn't get some momentum going then it wouldn't be long until the Netherworld was setting fire to the Tree of Beginnings. Elsewhere in the Hub a war council of the Top Barker players was taking place. The all were standing around a massive tree stump they were using as table with several maps and plans on it.

"We need to push back." One of the Barkers said in a low and shallow tone. "Is there any way to take back the temple?"

"Not at the moment, our troops are still disheartened by the loss of the priestess."

"Good riddance I say! Those fat pigs were a drain on our resources and for nothing but for the blessing of the mother goddess, we don't even get a buff or skill for that."

"The Dryads do."

"Oh screw them, it was a Dryad that caused this mess in the first place, Reglin tell him you were there tell us how your little bitch of a party member screwed us all." They all turned to Reglin who seemed a bit uncomfortable with being put on the spot like this.

"I will admit that Gilna didn't help the situation…"

"See he admits that this is the fault of a dryad!"

"No I didn't say that…" But Reglin's voice was soon drowned out by the yelling of the other Barkers.

"Everyone be quiet!" A new voice echoed throughout the chamber causing the others to go quiet. They all began to sit down as the owner of the voice came into the light. A massive man in some of the best gear any of them had seen in the game so far walked to the head of the table. "Now then, what we need to do is show people we don't need the priestess in order to win. So all of us are going to form a raid group, and attack the temple and destroy the golems that are being set up there. We destroy them and we kill two birds with one stone. Show we can fight without the mother goddess and cripple the Netherworld's fighting forces."

"And show the Dryads just who's in charge!" The room roared in agreement at this with only three players sitting quietly, Reglin among them.

* * *

Nethlio was polishing his golem while watching the sunset on the First Forest. He was in a temple to the mother goddess that had been taken by Netherworld forces a few days' prior. He watched as many others worked on their golems hoping to make a good impression on the Netherghuls that would be coming in the morning. The temple was now acting a duel role, first and foremost as a staging ground for future attacks but now as a showcase for the Elves' golems. He was pretty pleased with himself that he went the route he did. After all he had twelve-foot-tall war machine and compared to some of the other golems around the temple he was sure he was going to get the most offers despite the lengthy time his golems required. A few others were just as impressive by Nethlio still thought he was best. As he began to climb down the ladder he was on he thought he saw something moving through the nearby trees. As he looked closer a figure shot from the tree and attacked one of the nearby guards. Nethlio acted quickly and sent a spark of magic to his golem turning it on. Light began to glow from the three eyes on its sunken head and the crystals that served as its arms began cracking and breaking of from each other and just floated in the air though the shape was still that of arms and hands. The golem moved to life as did others around the temple though only the ones whose creators had been present to turn them on. Nethlio quickly jumped on to his golem's back to better direct it. More figures emerged from the forest and it was then Nethlio saw that these were Players.

"Uh… you all do realize that this is suicide right!" Nethlio yelled out to the Good Players hoping to get them to back down peacefully. But it didn't work and the Good Players continued their attack. Nethlio sighed, he didn't want to kill anyone but he tried and failed to resolve this peacefully. He motioned his golem to attack and the golem moved to the nearest concentration of good players, in one heavy move the golem smashed its hands down into the group of Players. Most of the Players moved out of the way but a few got caught and now found themselves in the clutches of the golem. The stone construct threw the Players over the tree line sending them several miles away. Nethlio continued to fight alongside the other golems and Evil Elf guards but soon it became apparent that the players were far more interested in destroying golems than taking back the temple as the Evil Players thought. By the time the Evil Plyers figured this out however almost all the golems had been destroyed. Leaving only a few left before the Good Players had to retreat due to the sight of reinforcements from one of the nearby Minion caves. As Nethlio watched as the last of the Good Players he couldn't help but notice that they were all guys, he found it strange that in a raid group this big that there would be no woman.

* * *

Dyrath walked through the temple that he had cleared out a few days ago with Honic and Remus behind him. Evith and her party had insisted that they come with Dyrath and his group to welcome him to the Elven base. Dyrath was not expecting it to seem so battered. The sight of corpses and ruined golems scattered throughout the courtyard of the temple. They had been told that the Good Players had made a night raid on the base and had destroyed most of the golems. Dyrath was looking at the seven that remained, all of them were far superior to the ones that littered the courtyard.

"You must be Netherghul Dyrath." A hearty voice said. Dyrath turned to see a Elven commander walking over to Dyrath and his group.

"Yes that's me." Dyrath said as the man pulled him in to a handshake.

"I have to thank you for getting me this beachhead in to the First Forest. And for killing those horrid women that just sat here eating all day."

"So what happened here, I mean I heard the hippies attacked last night but not much else."

"Well from what we heard from the few sculptors that were here last night and from our spies in the Tree of Beginnings it would seem that the boys of the Barkers are feeling a bit pissed off that the loss of the priestess is causing the losses they been feeling lately; they're trying to show that they don't need the mother goddess…" the commander spit at the floor after saying this. "… to wage war, stupid boys. The power that comes with following her is about the only thing they going for them… oh and home field advantage."

"Do we have a counterattack planned." This seemed to make the commander laugh. "What's so funny?"

"The idea that we need to make counterattack, listen… the moment that the hippies lost even one of their priestesses this was over." The commander walked away still laughing a bit.

"That was Director Commander Zel." Evith said as she walked over to Dyrath. "He and most of the War board of Elves don't seem to give the Good elves much thought other than seeing them as stupid hippies."

"Problem is that Players aren't hippies."

"Yeah, so what do you think we should do?" Dyrath looked around taking in what he saw.

"Nothing, right now focus on grinding and leveling up."

"Nothing? You want to do nothing? And you're already the highest level player in this whole zone."

"And I intend to keep it that way, look at me… my gear is the same as when I started, your party is the only members I have in Faction. For right now, I want you four to work on your levels and making contacts in the Elves and gaining favors."

"I think we can do that."

"Good, me and my party will do some grinding on some of the more monster infested areas."

"If you're heading to fight monsters then I think I can give you a good place to start."

* * *

(warning people going to die)

Condard walked out on to the out onto the arena floor. He had very little armor on, just a metal shoulder guard, metal greaves, and a full helmet. Condard carried a single short sword and a two sided spear. He looked through the holes in his helmet to see that there was the biggest crowd in the arena he had ever seen, even though this was a night fight. On the other side of the arena was eight cages and each had a player in them. Condard then looked up to see the Emperor walk out on to the ledge of his viewing box.

"Tonight we celebrate the Reborn Empire!" The Emperor said his voice amplified by magic. "We are here because we were able to over throw the corruption of the Glorious Empire. A society filled with hate, fear, and stupidity. And now we will succeed where they failed, and do right where they did wrong. Tonight we will watch as a lone human man kills eight monsters of the Netherworld, showing us that nothing can conquer humanity." The Emperor waited until the applause died a little down before returning to his viewing box. The cages opened to let the Players out. He would kill tonight, he would kill real people, and this wasn't even close to being on his mind. Condard watched the three brown Minion Players move out in front, the two green Minion Players had already vanished from Condard's sight. At this Condard raised the back end of his spear to shoot out his back to prevent the Greens from hitting him there. The two red Minion Players stayed by the cages while the Blue Player still remained in his. Condard had heard that Blue Minions could revive fallen Minions but was unsure if the Players could do the same for other Players. Condard began slowly walking to the Players. Two of the Brown Players began charging at him while the third hanged back. The two that were charging only had clubs but the third was the only one with a blade. Condard made a quick jab with his sword to the shoulder on the right Player. Using his sword, he pushed the Player to the left and causing him to crash in to the other Player giving Condard a shot at the third Player that charged behind the others. Condard caught the Player off guard by his pervious move and was able to make his first kill shot with his spear to the Player's heart draining his HP down to Zero instantly. Condard pulled the spear out then used the staff of it to smack the Green Player that was behind him with enough force to crack the Player's skull though only was able to get the Green's health bar to yellow. The two other Browns made their move and attempted to charge again at Condard but he quickly side stepped them and made his second kill with a quick stab to the back of the one of the Brown's neck. The Player's health bar dropped to Zero as Condard pulled his sword out.

"You bastard!" Condard heard a frantic voice say before swinging his sword at the origin of the voice. He looked over and saw his sword embedded half way through a Green Minion Player. Condard thrusted his sword clean through the Player to finish him off. He then felt his head get smashed by the last Brown Minion Player's club. Condard crack his neck and turned to the fearful Player. The Player tried to run away but Condard knew better, he turned just in time to block a slash from the other Minion Player. He quickly grabbed the Player and used him as shield to protect himself from the two Red Player's fire attack having saw them getting ready before as he watched the Brown run. He threw the Green to ground and with a quick stab to the throat ended her life. Condard slowly walked over to the remaining four Players, he then looked over to the cage that held the Blue Player and noticed that a pool of blood had started form outside the cage meaning that the Player likely killed himself. Three more Players remained in front of him all on their knees begging for mercy. With the tip of his spear's blade at the throat of the last Brown he looked at the Emperor's Box. The crowds who at this point were screaming with praise and applause turned silent as they turned to the Emperor. And with a defiant thumbs down the fates of the three remaining Players were sealed.

* * *

Guide to DDO

Skills- Skills are the abilities that players can acquire via several means. Skills fall under two forms, Growth and Solid. Growth Skills can be leveled up with points gained on a player level up or by using them over and over again. Solid skills are rarer and far more powerful, they are permanent additions on to the gameplay of a player.

Stats- Stats are the physical attributes of a player and are the following- Muscle, Fortitude, Magic, Senses, Movement, Command, Presence. Muscle determines how strong a Player can be. Fortitude is the amount of health a Player has and how much pain can the player feel. Magic is for the amount of Mana a Player can have. Senses gives the Player a boost to five senses. Movement controls how well a Player can move their avatar. Command works as the limiter for how many NPCs a player can control at any given time under normal circumstances. Presence affects nearby NPCs.

Netherworld Nobles- The select few of beings that rule the Netherworld while there is no Overlord. Their numbers are small and very few believe the number is in the double digits. The only beings that are considered without a doubt to be part of this elite group are Gnarl, Queen Fay, and Mortis. A few have questioned if Gibbet or perhaps Gruby could be counted but those thoughts are quickly dispelled once those people have met the two minions.

 **Authors Note- I love summer! I got this done in day and I don't feel like it's that bad. But if you guys think I should have done a bit more work then tell me.**


	5. Chapter 5

Dyrath stood over the dead minotaur. It wasn't like most minotaurs that people thought being half man half bull but the ones in DDO were half man half boar. All around the minotaurs were smaller creatures called razorbacks.

"You know… I think I'm sick of pork." Remus as he went over the loot window.

"Ironic how it was pork that basically caused you to join us." Dyrath said as he walked away from the hulking mass of white meat. "This was the last of the monsters and considering the shear amount of them the respawn wave won't happen for a while."

"So What do we do now? I mean I for one just want to head back to the camp and enjoy the high life of being heroes." Remus said as he pulled out some bread from his inventory. "We're almost out food."

"No we're almost out of money, we need to sell off the resources we got from hunting so we can get a nice upgrade to our gear. Honic, any idea where we would get a good price for this stuff?"

"For the items we got I think we should head to the Frozen Wastes. The furs and meat will fetch a high price, but we should stop by the Netherworld and sell of the alchemic items and bones."

"Screw that, let's just stay and drop the shit off and get back to enjoying the celebrity life."

"At best we would get a hundred gold, but at Nordberg we'll get at least three."

"Then that's our plan, we'll head back to camp and take the Nether Gate to the Frozen Wastes where we'll sell off the furs and meat and maybe do a few quests then head to the Netherworld to drop the rest of the junk off and get some good gear."

"Can't we just have chubby here make us some goodies?" Remus said smiling.

"I told you to quit calling me chubby! And can't without the life force and resources need for crafting."

"Enough you two, let's get moving." Dyrath led the group out of the now cleared monster's den and out of the monster's zone. The group made their way back to camp which had grown substantially since the capture of the temple a week and half ago. What was a few tents and Nether Gate had become a small walled fort with many player tents and even a few structures. In the days since the retaliatory attack the war had returned to a stalemate, with the Barkers leading the charge against the Netherworld forces and the Evil Elves making a spearhead to the Tree of Beginnings. The Barkers had begun taking things into their own hands or that what it had been looking like to Dyrath. The few groups that they had saw had all been all been guys with no Dryads anywhere. He had not seen a female Elf player since that one in the temple. Dyrath's party had even been attacked by the Barkers during their training hunts, Dyrath knew that it was likely that they would come after him because he was responsible for the whole thing. The trip back to the Camp was uneventful which was a nice change of pace. As the Dyrath party moved through camp he noticed that many of the Evil players had stopped with the hero worship but still the respect was in their eyes and Dyrath now knew why. When he had first come back to the camp after completing the quest he thought it was simple praise for helping the war and thus bringing them closer to completing the game but now he knew it was deeper than that. After the retaliation on the temple Dyrath was told before he had completed the quest that over fifteen players had died trying to push the battle line. It wasn't that they loved that he had gained them a victory but that he did it in the first place. The news that he won gave them hope that they could in fact win. They all still looked at him with a form of reverence and some gave salutes or other signs of respect.

"You okay man?" Remus asked Dyrath. "You seem to be just staring in to space?"

"Oh… I'm fine, just thinking about things."

"You do that way too often for my taste." Remus said before dropping down the Nether Gate tunnel. Dyrath raised his brow at this and turned to Honic.

"He thinks in simple ways, big thoughts hurt his simple mind."

"That's not very nice." Dyrath smiled.

"May not be, but you keep thinking big and I'm sure that we will keep winning."

"It's never been about winning, just getting to the next day and moving forward with bringing our best."

"Sure future Overlord sure."

* * *

Won Won Won. This is what was going through Condard mind as he watched over the few players that he had brought with him from the barracks. He had been given a War Band, a military unit comprised of criminals deemed worthy to fight on the battlefield instead of the arenas. He had taken ten of his fellow gladiators, including Elis and even Todric and his goons. Elis was a no brainer as she's fast and very protective of him but Todric barely made it. He had made too many arguments for himself and he was right he did well keeping the men in line and keeping moral high, but now it was Condard who was inexplicably in charge. And he was in charge, this he made sure to the rest of them. He had been given this War Band by Empress Juno herself and he was sure of that. He had beaten the man that claimed her as his own but now he needed to impress her even more, and now he needed to do that by a more indirect way. Before she saw him kill and fight but now she would hopefully read of him in his overseer's reports.

"Okay Champ, about time we get you up in the next fight." And that was his Overseer coming in to his tent.

"I thought I said not to come in here."

"Oh come on Champ, don't be like that. We're both on the same side, now let's try and get through this so we can hopefully impress our betters enough to give us a better station." This was true, he was uncomfortable with the winter clothes he had to wear in this frozen hell. It restricted his movements. "Now we have are orders, we've been taking ground in this part of the world and the Empire wants to keep it that way. We're not quite having legions at the gates of Nordberg but we getting there. But we need to keep things up. We've held quite a few victories, the capture of those freaks that got you this War band, the burring of the North bridges has kept the supply of the heavier Netherworld war machines away, and best of all the retaking of the Elven sanctuary." That made Condard tense up with rage. If he had gotten to the front lines a few days earlier then he would have part of that retaking but he had been delayed by ceremony and other nonsense that his great majesty had him go through.

"So what are our orders?"

"For right now we patrol the edges of Nordberg's catapult range. We need to catch any Netherghuls that try and come over our side of the battle line. We don't need any of them making trouble like what happened in the Elves' forest."

"What happened? I don't really care; I just want to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen here."

"The damn tree people screwed up, the Elves lost their fat priestesses and went all sad and lazy. But I heard the tree people got some lead in their spine… or whatever they have, trunks maybe…"

* * *

Dyrath walked through the streets of the now city Nordberg. It was far from the small town of the second Overlord game, it was now a spiraling city of black netherworld stone and hammered steel. Mile high towers sprung up from the land like needles, tar streets busy with humans, minions, elves. People and monsters moving around the city working for themselves and the netherworld. Dyrath and his group had made their way to the old district, what remained of the Nordberg town that the pervious Overlord had grown up in. This had turned into a bursting market for many players and NPCs alike.

"There has to be thousands of players here!" Remus exclaimed as he, Dyrath and Honic moved through the crowds.

"I'm pretty content knowing that you have yet to pick up the Pickpocket Skill yet." Dyrath said as they moved to a nearby market stall.

"Exotic furs and skins from Ruborian Desert to the shores of Altoe and far beyond that." The man at the stall yelled out to the crowd.

"You have anything from the Forest of Beginnings?" Dyrath said as he approached the stall.

"Oh that's a big no my good Netherghul, imports from the Elves' forest have been trickling in at best though it has been improving. The product from there is quite popular with the Elves in the city and even more so in their own territories."

"Told you guys this was the place to unload our stuff." Honic said smugly.

"Yes we get it, so we just came from the Forest and want to sell off our goods."

"Oh good! This certainly is my week, so let's see what you've got here… I personally am hoping for some nice unicorn skins." The merchant was giddy at this news. Dyrath pulled up the seller window and brought the Furs to the merchant. "Oh my… I was not expecting Minotaur fur. This will fetch a good price in the Spires, Razorbacks will do good in the army camps. For the whole thing I'll give you two twenty."

"Two twenty? This is worth at least three fifty." Honic said as he pushed Dyrath out of the way.

"Three Fifty! You insult my honor sir, this is worth no more than two eighty and that is me being generous."

"Three fifty, that is me being generous not greedy."

"You didn't change your price!" From this point on the two began arguing over price and Dyrath began tuning it out. Honic seemed to be doing well enough and Dyrath was the kind of man that just took the first offer. Dyrath began looking around while waiting for Honic to finish and as he did so heard a voice in the crowd, a voice that he had not heard in a long time. He nodded to Remus to followed and he nodded back. Dyrath and Remus walked through crowds to the weapon stalls where the familiar voice was coming from.

"I was told that the Sword would be here in three days… well it's been three days so where is it?" The man yelled at small merchant who was almost cowering.

"Nice to see things don't really change." Dyrath said as he walked over to Xode. "Your still an ass." Xode turned to see Dyrath.

"Well damn, I lost that bet, you're still kicking." Xode said this trying hide his disappointment with a smile. "You're that guy that tried sucker punching me on the first day."

"Yes I am, I heard I bit about your little hiccup. No one is really putting your name forward for the tournaments after that."

"Well I haven't heard anything about you impressing the Nobles. I still don't even remember your name."

"That just shows that you can't keep track of your peers."

"That would suggest you're my peer."

"That's true, I'm the hero of the Forest of Beginnings front while you're a disgrace."

"I don't know what you did in forest of hippies but that doesn't compare to what I have in the works."

"And what might that be, don't get me wrong I think you're just bullshiting me here I just want the laugh.

"You think I'm going to tell some nobody my grand plan to catapult myself to the front of the line for Overlord." Xode nodded to his party and after another quick smug smile he left.

"And the point of that?" Remus asked.

"Does there have to be a point?"

"With you yeah, you never do anything without a reason."

"Too much thinking right?"

"Yeah, way too much for me, for you? Makes you a great leader, you think that dumbass put in any thought to talking to you. He just talked about how great he was while you were trying to get information."

"Thanks Remus, as for the information. We now know that he's gotten spies into the Empire or at least he tried to and now thinks that the plan is still going."

"See, your way better than that guy. He's not thinking about what you said but when is he getting laid next."

* * *

Donwi worked at his forge. He hammered away at the hot lump of metal that would become his two hundredth sword. He was watching the placement of his hammer carful, his eyes underneath his goggles trained on his strikes. As the lump shaped and formed to the sword he wanted. After a quick dip the tub of water to cool off the metal Donwi picked the sword up to his face. It was flawed, it was massively flawed. Donwi threw the failure in the pot of molten steel that held his other failures.

"It was fine. You didn't need to trash it." Toya said from her own forge.

"It was in fact trash, awful trash." Donwi sat back down in his chair, he stroked his bread in frustration. He was still unused to having one.

"If you just use the system to help then you'd make the perfect sword you seem to crave."

"I won't do it! I will not use the damn system made by that man." Donwi hand covered his face as he rubbed his forehead. Toya put down her tools and quickly walked over to Donwi.

"John…" She called him his true name, that was the only name she would ever accept. "… you can't think like that; you can't be that stubborn. We'll never get back to Abby that way."

"I know…" Donwi took a deep breath at the memory of his daughter. "… it's just, I can't do it. That man trapped us here. And for me to play his game anymore than living is simply a shot to my head."

"You need to get over yourself, the only way we can do anything meaningful to help is to do our best. And if you can't do that on your own then I will help you, if you can't use the system then a least we can give the failures away instead of trashing them, give them to low level players and civilian players."

"Fine… as long as no one knows they're from me."

"… okay." Toya smiled at her husband knowing that he was in fact doing much better now that he had his work.

* * *

"Three hundred! Three hundred gold, I got us the three hundred I said we would get." Honic said as he held up his mug of ale. "And now we drink in my glory!"

"We're having a few silvers of ale and that's all. The rest goes to gear." Dyrath said before taking a sip from his own mug.

"But for right now we drink!" Remus yelled out in an agreement with Honic.

"Yes, you two laugh it up." Dyrath smiled as his friends continued their fun preferring to take the sober role in the group. They continued to party through the night though Dyrath was very capable at keeping the cost low. The next morning the group stumbled out of the inn they were staying at to the cold air of thee Frozen Wastes.

"Ahhhhh… that feel good." Remus said as the cold air hit his hangover.

"Oh yeah… this works so much better than any cold shower." Honic simply closed his eyes to the sharp breeze.

"I'm happy that the two of you have learned no lesson at all." Dyrath said having no form of hungover due to having little ale the night earlier. "I sure next time we'll be somewhere very hot and the you'll both… whoa." Dyrath said as he was pushed by a crowd of people running to the city gates. "Hey… What's going on?!"

"A empire War band has been circling the city and has been keeping people from getting in and out. A bounty of five thousand gold has been placed on the War band's leader." One of the crowd answered before returning to the running of the hopefuls.

"Did he just say… Five… Thousand?" Honic said completely in disbelief. "That will buy a lot of booze and armor."

"And a ton of good nights with good company." Remus said happy at this news. "What about you oh leader of ours, you have any ideas for that kind of cash?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is a bounty on a player, a human being."

"We're going to have to cross that line at some point." Honic said, his mood turned somber. "In this game we're going to have to kill. And you want to be Overlord, there is no way you're going to do that without killing people. It's something we all are going to deal with."

"I know, let's go see what's all the fuss." Dyrath sighed and walked towards the city gates with his party right behind him. They followed the massive crowd and found themselves at the enormous city gates. The arch was built into the stone earth itself crafted by magic and minion man power while the gates themselves were giant plates of black and purple steel depicting the pervious Overlord's conquering of Nordberg in a very artful way. The crowd raged at the gate to open and let them have their chance at one of the biggest paydays yet. "Why are the gates closed?"

"Some moron bribed the gate crew or something." One of the Minion players answered Dyrath.

"Anyone want to bet against me on it being Xode that did this." Remus joked.

"Did someone say my name?" Xode said from behind. The Three turned to see Xode and his party, two Red Minion players, A Brown Minion Player, an Elf Player the same Path as Jea, and a Netherghul Warlock.

"You're here?" Honic asked quite shocked that Xode wasn't the guy that beat everyone to the punch.

"Yes I am, I don't need to do such cowardly tactics. And by the way who are you guys." This time Xode was clearly just mocking them.

"I'm not in the mood for your particular brand of annoyance." Dyrath said before returning his attention to the gates. He knew that the gates were the only way out of the city due to the mountains on all other sides. He threw his head back in defeat to this problem.

* * *

Condard watched the gates to Nordberg closed as a single figure walked out. He couldn't make out the size and the type of player due to the distance. He dropped from his spot down to the ground. "We have one target incoming."

"Just one… why?" One of Condard's gladiators asked.

"Don't know, could be the highest level player they have or maybe it's a distraction. In any case we have our orders, we kill anything that tries to get in or out." Condard was on edge, after the initial attacks and the soldiers Nordberg sent things began to get quiet. It had been a few days since the soldiers had marched on them and they killed them. Now no one dared to try to get in to the city by land, the city had the damned Nether gates to keep it supplied. The worst part was the Shaft, the tunnel the Glorious Empire had built to try to get in to the Netherworld, it had been turned in to a highway for the Netherworld. The city was far from surrendering from loss of supply, but the players would soon leave to other war fronts and while the said fronts would suffer from this the Frozen Wastes front was easily the most important. The city provided over half of the life force the Netherworld used and was the only true beachhead into the surface world.

"So Cony, what do we do?" Elis asked still jumping in excitement.

"I'm going to meet this lone player and kill him proving that no one can leave while we're here. The rest of you stay back and watch for any others just in case this is a distraction."

"You better be sure about this Champ? This could be a massive trap." His overseer said genuinely careful. "I'm not prepared to lose my golden goose." He joked. Condard actually smiled at this. He then slid down the rock face of the small cliff the War band was holding as their own. His gaze had not left the lone player and as he dropped to the ground he had a good idea of where the player was. After a quick look around, he bolted down through the snow and few trees. His winter clothes slowing down his speed, but he still ran faster than a normal man. He soon noticed that there was an echo to his steps, no that was wrong, it was his steps that were echoing the other's. The problem was by that logic he should be behind his target but he felt his instincts scream at him that something was behind him. He quickly turned his whole body mid step to catch the blade of his hooded target.

"Nice catch, but can you do that again?" The Netherghul said as his body disappeared only to reappear in the same spot a minute later once Condard dropped his guard to rise it in another direction. The Netherghul made the same move as he did before but this time landing his blade in Condard's side. Condard's HP bar quickly dipped down in to the yellow and once it did so Condard pushed back off the Netherghul.

"You have magic." Condard snarled. He needed to find the spell stone or it's anchor to him. If he didn't then he could keep pulling that disappearing act all he wanted. The Netherghul's clock covered his entire body. He thankfully had no Minions with him, Condard knew this because he saw this man leave the city with none. The Netherghul disappeared once again but Condard stopped his attack this time with a quick parry with his spear. Condard made his first mark on his opponent after his parry with a blow to the man's face with his face. The opponent stumbled back clenching his nose.

"Time out!" This caught Condard off guard for a moment. "Damn… you got me good. Your everything they said you'd be." Condard made his next move as the man spoke taking many strikes that made no contact. "Your good but you can't take someone on who's done this sort of thing for years." This stopped Condard completely but he didn't let it create an opening for the man.

"Years?"

"In the real world I'm an Army Ranger, I always loved the close combat training just a little too much. You might not have the training but you got the fire… I'm going have fun with you." The man said before once again disappearing. Condard wasn't fazed by this new development, he just now had someone to hunt.

* * *

Guide to DDO

Civilian Players- Not all players are on the front lines of the battlefield or directly supporting them. These are the people who chose not to take any of the paths, the only race not to be given this option were the Netherghuls. Civilian players are often either looked on by the Path players with pity or distain. Either to be seen as needing protection or as cowards that are simply dead weight. The Civilian Players are by no means dead weight, for example the Civilian Players in the Empire are able to take place in the Empire's politics, but all Civilian Players are able to own businesses and still able to fight just not aided by the Paths' training and abilities.

Altoe- One of the many new lands introduced in DDO. Altoe has been called the Britain of DDO, it's culture and people are very reminiscent of medieval England. With the only difference being that the people of Altoe are quite reluctant to leave their island. The people of Altoe are incredibly stubborn in their isolationism and while they are fairly open to people coming to them they do not tolerate outsiders meddling in their affairs.

Condard's Instant Kill Skill. Gladiator's Expertise: _After many rounds in the circle of the Arena you have devolved a sense of your opponent's vital spots._ Hits to the head, neck, and heart cause a players HP to drop to zero when you are over twice the level of the player.


	6. Chapter 6

Dyrath stared up at the closed gate, the crowd had only grown in the last few hours. Dyrath looked back at the even now growing mass of Players eager to get their chance at the five thousand gold bounty on the other side. From what Dyrath had heard through the gossip and whispers he was able to discern that the bounty had been put on a Empire Player. The leader of a War band, that in itself was reason to worry. Only the best of Gladiator Players are given a War band. Dyrath had read only a little on the Gladiator, they are extremely good at close combat, able to make kill shots, and move quick. The rumors given by the crowd were vague at best as to what the leader looked like but they knew how strong the War band was, it held just a little over twenty players and they were backed up by NPC soldiers of the Empire. But since the War band was so close to Nordberg they now lacked the support of the legions of soldiers the Empire had at their disposal. As Dyrath thought about these thing he also looked at the crowd. It was massive. Players from other Zones must have heard of the bounty and were now coming.

"Remus, Honic. We're heading back to the Netherworld." Dyrath said as he began moving back out of the crowd.

"What… but what about the money?" Remus asked more sad than angry but when he turned face Dyrath he saw the mass of people and realized what Dyrath knew. There was far too much competition. As Remus followed Dyrath and Honic out of the crowd Xode watched with a keen eye. He too had noticed the added competition and when he saw that the crowd had begun growing from not just the Players of the Frozen Waste but also from other Zones he knew that it was time to leave.

"Boys, we're leaving for the Wastelands in ten minutes." Xode said to his party.

"But boss…" Feras, Xode's Warlock party member asked but backed down we he received a glare from Xode. Xode knew his plan wouldn't be hampered by the change in Zone, and it might even help it.

* * *

Reglin walked through one of the many wooden halls of the City of the Treefolk in the Tree of the Beginnings. He was on deep thought; he was thinking about what had been going on for the past few days. The Barker Players had become immensely powerful and that had started a chain reaction that might end in something terrible. He rubbed the back of his head in frustration, the feeling of his vine like hair was still strange to him, most of the other Barkers had taken to braiding but he kept his loose. He at the moment concerned with the purpose of the meeting that he was on his way to. His thoughts were disrupted when he stepped out of the hallway and in to the grand market of the city. The market was filled all across with tents and yurts and many market stalls. Reglin used to love coming here, the place was filled with music and sweet smells. Now it was just filled with arguing.

"How can you charge this?!" A Dryad Player demanded of a Barker Player store owner.

"Because that's what I'm selling for." The Barker Player said with a superior grin on his face.

"I know for a fact that you sold my friend the same fruit for a lower price!"

"Well maybe your friend deserved it more."

"What does that mean?!" Reglin knew what that meant, it had become the popular opinion of many of the Barkers that they deserved more than the Dryads given how it was the Barkers who were keeping the Evil Players at bay. Or this was how they saw it at least. Reglin himself was disgusted by all this and himself he was partly to blame for all this. He continued on to one of the few buildings in the market area. He knocked on the closed door, and a slide opened.

"Password."

"Next Night." Reglin said to the door which opened. "Thank you." Reglin said as he walked in. The entire room was filled with the top Barkers players and only Barker Players. Reglin sat down at the table and looked over his so called peers. Next to him was the most famous solo player in all of the elves Paths, on his other side was one of the leader of the Trade Circle OAK and only civilian player in the room. The other eight in the room were just as equally powerful and known. But the most powerful and well known was the man at the head of the table. This was the man that suggested to attack the temple at the last meeting the Barkers had, he was Vrucis, the best Barker Player in the whole game. His level alone gives him that title, being at Fifteen. A feet unheard of this early in the game. The last Player invited to this meeting arrived a few minutes later and with him sitting down Vrucis stood up.

"All right, now that everyone is here let's get this meeting started." His voice was just as imposing as his height. "We are here to deiced whether or not we should cut ties to rest of the Mother Goddess Priestess." This was followed by silence, no one wanted to disrespect the man.

"I say we should." The Barker to the right of Reglin said. "The Priestess are a drain on our resources and we've shown the Elves we don't need them; they don't serve any real purpose."

"I say we need them…" Another Barker said. "… if we cut ties then we run the risk of losing the support of the Elves entirely, we may have the ones that live here with us but the other sanctuaries will no doubt see this as an act of betrayal and war."

"I agree, if we lose the support of the other Elven nations then we run the risk of losing the Reborn Empire and the Dwarfs."

"Fools, the Empire doesn't care if we quit feeding the fatties! They only care if we keep fight the Netherworld. And we can do that better without the priestess."

"I say the same! The Empire will respect us more if we take the power from those NPCs."

"And if we can prove to the rest elves that we don't need the Mother Goddess than they will follow." Reglin counted in his head, it was two to four. All but one of the undecided were needed to overrule the idea. He knew he was going to need to take to the floor, he knew that Vrucis was for cutting ties, hell he was the one who out the idea out there. So he needed to convince the last three to vote on his side. Reglin stood up and prepared himself.

"I know there is a lot of push for this move, but I need for all of you know one thing. We are in a death game. We cannot even think of risking our allies, it is true that the Priestess are a drain on our resources but that's all. The losses of cutting ties far out way the benefits. Remember the goal is to get out of here." There was quite a bit of whispering after Reglin had sat back down but what noticed was the glare he was getting from Vrucis.

* * *

Dyrath walked out of the Grand Netherghul Gate and in to the Grand Hall of Evil's champions that would led to the Grand Banquet Hall where feasts would be held in the honor of great deeds of Evil. Dyrath thought the game designers (Kayaba) used the word Grand a bit too much. Honic was walking behind him and Remus wasn't that far behind. Remus had never been to the Netherghul Hub before and was taking in the sights.

"Holy Fuck Is That A High Ceiling!" Remus said with his head firmly locked upwards.

"Yeah… are the Minion Boroughs really that bad?"

"Oh hell yeah, it's living in caves. How good could it be?" Dyrath and Honic were both silent, they both feeling a bit guilty for the treatment they both received. The three made their way down to the lower levels and then to the Warlock Spires. Many of the Netherghul Warlocks either had remained in the spires since the start of the game or headed off to the Wastelands. The Wastelands had become the most popular Zone for Warlocks as it was the most magical and had the least amount of fighting not being a war front. The Wastelands was technically neutral territory, but all knew that it was a land of Evil. Dyrath and his party soon found themselves lost among the corridors and stairwells. "Where the fuck is the guy?!" Remus screamed out in frustration.

"The directions on the job board were unclear to say the least." Honic said as he balanced himself on the wall.

"Maybe we should call up Evith and see if see knows any Warlocks."

"I doubt she would know anyone here; they are all recluses."

"Hey, I resent that comment." A feminine voice said from behind the men. They all turned to see a Warlock Player standing in a doorway, a girl that couldn't have been more then fourteen years old. The three men could only stare at the small player unable to come up with a good response. "Are you guys going to just stand there or what?"

"Oh… ummm hi, do you where this is?" Dyrath held out his copy of the job board posting that had led them to where they were now.

"Oh that's a fake, yeah a bunch of Warlocks thought it might be funny to have a bunch of outsiders get lost in the Spires so they would be easy pickings for Blue Alpha Minion pickpockets."

"I don't see how that's funny." Honic said while Remus on the other hand quietly laughed.

"Oh damn… do you know any Warlocks that would willing to pay for some top alchemy ingredients?" Dyrath said trying to salvage something from this day.

"Do I know… uh I can." The young Netherghul said partly insulted.

"No we need someone with money…" Remus said before getting punched in the gut by Honic.

"Sorry for my friend." Dyrath said fairly embarrassed by Remus. "If we could do business with you that would save us a lot of trouble." The girl looked over Dyrath and his two friends.

"Okay, apology accepted. Come on in." The Warlock walked back in to her lair with Dyrath and his party not far behind. When Dyrath walked in to the chamber he was impressed by the amount of work that she had put in to her research of… whatever she was researching. That wasn't entirely clear but what was is that she clearly had been working hard. But what really caught Dyrath's eye was the huge Brown Alpha Minion Player standing in the corner. "… don't worry about Steve, he's harmless… unless you give me trouble." The Alpha Minion simply grunted.

"Steve, you couldn't pick a better name?" Remus asked bluntly. The Alpha Minion walked over to Remus and picked him up with one hand. Remus flailed around as Steve carried him out the door and dropped him outside and slammed the door shut. Dyrath and Honic stood frozen as Steve walked back to his spot.

"You guys have stuff to sell?" The Warlock asked not even regarding what just happened.

"Yeah… we have some alchemic items and bones from the monsters in the Forest of Beginnings." Dyrath opened his menu and selected the items he wanted to sell and moved the window over to the Warlock.

"… These are pretty good, I'll give you stock price."

"Really? Stock price like that?" Honic asked truly shocked.

"Yeah, you can't get goods like this off the market here in the Netherworld and I'm not going to the front lines to get the proper ingredients. So I'll pay full price."

"Wow… thanks."

"So what are you working on here, seems like you have a lot going on here?" Dyrath wanted to ask this since he entered the room.

"Oh I'm so glad you asked!" The Warlock said taking a excited pose. "I'm the Warlock Hreas and one day my work will produce the greatest of all Minion Species The Minion Ogre!" Steve began throwing confetti over Hreas.

"uhhhhhh… Ogre?"

"Yeah, big monstrous Minions. Like trolls but Minions. The forth Overlord created the Soldier Species of Minion after he overthrew the Glorious Empire. And now other Warlocks are seeking the secrets of Minion creation. I'm just thinking big… really really big."

"Well I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product." Dyrath nodded to Honic and began walking out. "See you next time we get lost." Dyrath smiled as he closed the door behind Honic.

* * *

Condard trudged through the snow of the Frozen Wastes, he had kept to the trees to avoid the bombardment of the artillery of Nordberg. But this also worked against him, this type of terrain heavily favored his enemy. He was used to fighting in open areas, not one filled with places to hide. He did have one advantage, he found the enemy's spell stone. The problem was that it was a small ring kept around the enemy's neck. Condard's eyes watched the trees for any sign of movement.

"Looking for little old me?" A voice came from behind and Condard quickly swung his sword to make a small cut across the Netherghul's face. "Oh… good one." The Netherghul just stood there dodging Condard's attacks but not moving from his spot and each time Condard tried to grab him he would employ his magic to disappear long enough for Condard to move behind him.

"Stay still!" Condard growled as he made another move.

"I am… funny, huh you can't even hit a man standing still."

"Shut up!" Condard took another stab with his spear but was pinned down to the ground by a knife to his neck. "Bastard!" Condard said as he watched his HP bar rapidly drop down into the red but once it hit a hundred points the Netherghul removed the knife.

"Well I think I'm done…" The Netherghul placed his knife back in sheath and began walking away. "By the way you've got a bounty of five thousand gold so people have been flooding in to Nordberg. I bribed the gate house to close up until we finished our playdate.

"So your just after the money?"

"You insult my honor sir, I just wanted fight someone that had a bounty of that size. But you should get out of this Zone, there's about over ten thousand players waiting for the gates to open to get a crack at you." At this the Netherghul began his walk again.

"Wait… I demand that you tell me your name."

"It Zula." The Netherghul said before walking off for the last time. Condard knew he couldn't fight; his HP was dangerously low. He was even now worried that the cold might finish him off. All he could do was pull his Command Menu and call for his men to find him. He had lost. He had never lost before to anyone in a fight, he knew that he had to stop the tears coming down his face before his men saw him. But all he could think about was how the Empress would view him when she heard of his loss. But his eyes that held his tears turned to anger, he would kill this Zula, he would do this, it now became a fact for Condard.

* * *

Remus was walking behind Honic and Dyrath. He was a bit pissed off, that big Minion player had made him wait outside while the others talked for no real reason. All he had done was say that that bastard's name was stupid.

"Hey… you okay?" Dyrath asked as they walked, his head turned back to Remus.

"Just a little pissed that you and chubby got to stay while I had to sit out like a damn child."

"That's what you get for being an ass." Honic said in a tone that made Remus even madder. He wasn't being an ass he was just being himself, and he wasn't an ass so by his logic he wasn't being an ass. They were walking back to the Grand Nether Gate to head back to the Forest of Beginnings, Remus was happy that they were finally going back. But as they walked they heard a scream from the nearby balcony. They and several other ran to the sound of the scream to find a female Netherghul holding on to a male Alpha Minion that was hanging on by her hand.

"Just let me go!" The Minion Player demanded.

"No I'm not ever going to let go." The Netherghul stated back. By now others had begun to surround the Netherghul but were hesitant to get involve. Remus simply just watch the event unfold knowing how this was going to play out. There was always stories of people just breaking under the fear and sadness, it was still very early in this Death game and this by many was expected and even accepted, seen as the survival of the fittest. Remus just watched and waited for it to unfold but then Dyrath walked up to the railing.

"You! Want do you think you're doing!" Dyrath said with an anger that neither Remus or Honic had ever seen. Dyrath grabbed the man's arm out of the other Netherghul hand. "Are you really going to waste your life for something as pointless as fear!"

"There's nothing I can do; I'm just going to die anyways might as well be on my own terms." The man said, tears flowing down his face.

"Bullshit! There is no such thing as going out on your own terms!" This made the man flinch. "All your doing is given up, your giving up on everyone that is waiting on the other side and everyone you'll ever meet on the other side!" Dyrath then pulled the man up and on to the balcony to be embraced by the female Netherghul. "If you feel like there's nothing you can do then find something I suggest the concerned woman on you." Dyrath said before walking back to his party.

"You sound like you were speaking from experience there." Honic said quietly.

"I was."

* * *

Guide to DDO

Quests- The main source of work and story to the world of DDO are its quests. Quest are the divided in to Bronze, Silver, Gold Platinum. Bronze Quest are the most common, they provide small amounts of Gold but no XP and are often seen as busy work. Silver Quest are second in commonality, Silver Quest are either used to help with the ongoing war or are the personal quests of the local population, Silver Quests give moderate Gold and small amounts of XP. Gold Quests are only ever found at the end of Silver Quest lines or given by people of high rank and authority, every zone's hub and War camp have at the very most three Gold quest time. Gold Quests most often have an impact on the local population or war front and provide a good amount of both Gold and XP. Platinum Quests are only ever give to the very best Players and are only ever given by the leaders of a Race or Path, they always have world changing effects whether the Quest was a success or a failure.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's notes

Sorry for the long wait, but I've made aa big mistake in taking on four stories and my own original work at the same time. I will try to do better.

* * *

Dyrath had walked out of the Nether gate in his newly bought armor. It covered his whole body but for his arms and head. Dyrath wanted to keep to a mid-weight armor to provide adequate protection but not hamper his dexterous fighting style. The Netherworld style of angular and barbed metalworking had kept true. The three parts of all armor the skill of who made it, what tools were used in making it, and what was used in making it. The skill the Forge Fiend had was decent at best but the tools he had were top of the line, how he got them Dyrath couldn't understand. And Dyrath had spent most of the money on the Dead Man's Steel used in making his armor. The axe he now had was shaped in two fang shaped blades with the bottom one serrated and the top one a bit longer extending over the bottom.

"Oh it's good to be back! Bring on the hordes of screaming fans!" Remus said as he walked out of the Nether gate but to his disappointment there were no hordes of fans to be seen. He now had just barely more improved then the minion rags he started with. They were more complete and resembled actual clothes but not by much. What he put his share of the money in was the daggers he got. He spent all the money in to the best Forge Fiend he could find and the best materials he could buy. The Forge Fiend had mid-tier tools but that was fine. The Daggers he had now had the damage numbers to bring a player down to the red and the poison effect from the green life force would drain them down to zero in a minute. "I thought we are famous…"

"Why is that my neck always hurts after we go through the gates." Honic said as exited the Nether Gate rubbing his neck. His armor had not changed much, only shoulder high gauntlets that match up with what he had before. He had spent all his money on a spell stone, it was a small one that he could hide under his Forge Fiend smock. The Spell Stone was the classic Fire Ball but it still was one of the very few and very expensive Spell Stones that could be bought at this early in the Game.

"I feel fine; you just need to stretch more." Dyrath said as he looked around. The War Camp was a total buzz with energy. Minion Imps, Minion Soldiers, Elves, and Players all were running around the camp. "Hey…" Dyrath said as flagged down one of the Elven Players. "…What the hell is going on?"

"You haven't heard? The fucking hippies were fighting themselves but now a bunch of other sanctuaries are coming in to reinforce them and to put down whatever was going on in the Tree." The elf said before returning back his work.

"So the tree people are having a hard time and the other hippies are cracking down… huh." Remus said as the three walked through the chaos.

"In any case the reinforcements mean that we should have a nice supply of silver rank quests."

"Yeah…or we could try at another Gold Quest?" Honic asked with a grin that made both Dyrath and Remus uneasy.

"Why the hell would we do that?" Dyrath asked.

"Do you not remember the fight we had! Your HP almost went into the red! And you want to take another go at a Gold Quest!"

"But it made us famous. I thought you of all people would be on my side."

"My plan is to survive. And I'd be stupid to take a Gold Quest while the Tree people are getting a boot up their ass from the rest of the Good Players. They have something to prove and I don't want to be the fucking thing they use to do that." Remus said completely serious.

"We are the ones that caused the change of the tide of war, they will be gunning for us so we need to lay low. We might lose a bit of notoriety among the Evil Players but we will do the same for the Good." Dyrath remarked, he was certain that this was the best course of action. They had a few months before the first tournament, and it wasn't even one of the three he wanted to be in. so laying low was acceptable until after. Honic nodded to the reasons his party mates gave, he just wanted to try and help but he knew to follow Dyrath leadership. The three walked through the busy camp and found themselves a nice easy silver war quest, go out on the battle and disrupt the eleven food gathers.

* * *

Reglin was waiting in one of the inns in the Tree of Beginning, he was uneasy several other player were currently giving him looks of anger and disgust. The voting at the meeting had gone his way. He was able to cornice enough of the Barkers that cutting ties was not the best move but what happened after was worse than if he had failed. Someone, likely Vrucis, leaked out that the meeting had even taken place and the response was expected.

" _Fucking prick doesn't get what he wants and he throws a fit and ruins everything._ " Reglin thought. The Dryads were furious, they told the other sanctuaries and they were even more upset. They all sent in soldiers to occupy the Tree, and they were making things worse, they blamed not only the Barkers as a whole but also the Dryads. Now even the some of the Dryads were whispering full on rebellion and the Barkers were screaming it. And the person taking the blame for all of this wasn't the one who leaked the information because no one knew who it was so they decided to blame the guy who convinced every one that they needed the other elves that now were occupying their home. Reglin was waiting for his party who most of them somehow still trusted him. He was thinking about taking a gold quest. If they did something like that it might take the heat off them and get people to cool their heads even just a little bit.

"Reglin?" Gilna asked Reglin who's eyes were closed. "You awake?"

"Yes… just didn't the atmosphere." Reglin said as he opened his eyes to see Gilna, Lincus, and Fors standing in front of him. "Where is Selece?" He knew the answer, the Dryad player felt severely betrayed by Reglin despite the fact he was on her side of the argument.

"She said she had other things to do." Fors said, he was one of the few Elven Players that had come to the Tree of Beginnings zone, the Dreamer Elf used to be seen in a quite positive light before the occupation but now he was hated.

"Of course… so I called you here because we have an issue."

'The issue being everyone hates you guys." Lincus said earing him the glare of his party. "What? The hate Gilna for not stopping the SOBs that caused all of this, they hate Reglin for making it worse, and the hate Fors because he's representation of the occupation. These are valid points people."

"He's not wrong." Fors admitted.

"We need to fix this, people are getting restless, the Barkers are calling for blood, mostly ours and the occupiers, and the Dryads are slowly turning towards their side. We have two options in the form of Gold Quests. The first one is to kill the Evil Players that caused this." Reglin noticed Gilna pull back from this. "Or… we open the Under Road. If we can do that, then the Dwarves can resupply and reinforce this Zone, the Dwarves may not like us but they are better to what is happing now." Reglin had been more interested in this Quest anyways.

"If the Dwarves help us in the war then the reinforcement reason for the other elves goes out the window." Fors said scratching his chin. "And then at least some of the elven soldiers would leave, they would be needed elsewhere."

"Right and with less troops occupying then people will be able to breath a bit more. Hopefully long enough for this to blow over. The problem is that the Under Road connecting to the rest of the network is corrupted by nightmare constructs fueled by the suffering of the forest. We have to clear it out and find the root of the corruption and destroy it. Fors this is where we're going to need you."

"Got it."

"Good lay low while I go and get the quest." Reglin said as he stood up. "Remember to keep out of trouble and if you can get Selece on board." They all nodded their heads and watched Reglin walk out of the Inn. They all parted way for the moment, with Fors going behind the Inn. Fors pulled up his menu and contacted a friend through the dream rat construct he gave them.

"Hey, I got some information I think you'd be willing to pay big for."

* * *

Dyrath finished off the last of the NPCs and looked at the reward window.

"Hey we're done here!" Dyrath yelled to the rest of his party.

"Already?! We haven't even leveled up once." Remus said going over the loot.

"It's a Silver Quest. We do two more and we level up." Dyrath said as he transferred the Mana he got over to Honic, he was the only one who currently used it. A message popped up in front of Dyrath marked as Connection. The message was a war alert, the connection was to Director Commander Zel. "Hey! We got a little opportunity here."

"What is it?" Honic said as he and Remus walked over.

"One of the Wraith Elf Players got a tip that one of the top Good Elf parties are going to try and open the Under Roads."

"Fuck! If they do that not only will we have to deal with the Tree people but heavily armed Tree people and the walking beards." Remus groaned.

"We can't let this happen, what kind of response is the Netherworld preparing to this."

"Us… at the moment. If we stop this then not only will it keep the Dwarves at bay for now but it will keep the tension in the Treefolk's camp and might led to civil war. If we pull this off, we could single handily cause the complete collapse of one of the Main Good Players' Hubs." Dyrath said getting excited.

"That certainly would be something an Overlord would do." Remus said feeding off the energy coming off Dyrath.

"What happened to laying low?" Honic said looking a little smug.

"Fuck that." Dyrath said throwing the blood off his axe. "We have the chance to become the top Evil Players and all we have to do is make sure that the Good Players fail."

* * *

Reglin stood in front of the Under Roads dungeon entrance with Gilna, Lincus, and Selece. They were waiting for Fors. The tension was so thick that one of them could cut it with their sword. Gilna just stood behind Selece hoping that nothing bad happened to Fors while Selece continued to avoid eye contact with the two males. Lincus was loudly tapping his foot and Reglin was just quietly waiting for his finial party member. The waiting ended with a noticed that Fors had left the party and a message saying he just couldn't take the hate and anger anymore and was heading back to Evernight.

"I guess he has every right to." Reglin sighed. He wasn't happy but he respected Fors' choice.

"Well maybe we should just wait until we find someone to replace him, this is a Gold Quest." Lincus said looking at the warning window on the path to the dungeon.

"No this needs to be done now. Any longer and the Barkers might openly rebel." Reglin said then looked over to the Dryads. Selece just looked away. She knew he was right but still felt angry about the meeting between the Barkers and Gilna just nodded in agreement. "Alright lets get this done. We have five levels of monsters to clean out and a three bar boss to kill." Reglin said as tapped accept to the warning window and walked on in to the Under Roads. The rest of them followed him. The entrance wasn't anything like the other Under Road architecture as this was made during one of the Dwarves many wars of greed. Those days were now the past and the Elves were now allies of the Dwarves but only out of a common enemy. The entrance was just a hole and much of this part of the Under Road was just a massive cave created out of blasting through the earth. A few rocky columns for support but nothing much else on this level.

It had been a good half hour before they saw the first of the monsters, constructs of the nightmare, a realm that all elven kind is connected to through their dreams. These Nightmares were created by the suffering of the First Forest but not by the hand of the Netherworld but by the hand of the Dwarves. The Nightmares guard against their return even if it help the forest face down this new enemy. The first Nightmares that the party saw were the Mockery, distorted versions of the Dwarves created out of roots, rocks and bits of metal. The first three were taken down with a few shots from Reglin's bow and Gilna's summoned roots. The party moved deeper in to the cave finding more and more of the Mockery. As they went deeper they could feel in the air that they had been noticed. The cave began to slightly shake to their movements and the Mockery began to show up on their own instead of the party finding them. It was when they found the entrance to the second level that the sound of massive roots moving began coming from under them.

"I think it knows we're here." Lincus said he watched the ground.

"No sense in keeping it waiting."

* * *

Nethlio looked over the his new contract, it was one of the best. He would continue to make his brand of Golem and the dead line for each of them was decent. With the money he was going to get he could get a new workshop, one that could be big enough for two or three people. With the extra help he could produce the Golems faster and if his level improved he might be able to leave the Workshop and help command his creations on the battlefield.

"So it seems like you were right." Omarica said as he sipped from his mug. The two of them were sitting in a café on the outskirts of the Elven City of Primus. Nethlio enjoying tea and Omarica enjoying a fine ale.

"Of course I was. Did you see some of my competition, sticks and mud?"

"Yeah… I have to admit to being one of those lazy ass slackers. Sooooo you got this new contact and you're going to be needing help…"

"Yes you can be on my staff." Nethlio said with a warm smile of friendship.

"Oh thank you…" Omarica sigh a deep sigh of relief. "… now I don't ever have worry about stupid design. I just have to work… I like work its simple and easy."

"Well I'm just happy that your happy." Nethlio said sarcastically. "I just am happy to have found someone that actually is decent human being."

"I hear that. A lot of the Sculptors are stuck up because we don't have to fight on the front lines or at all most times. They think we're safe and don't have to worry about PVP."

"Think we're safe?"

"Yeah, think about it. Once this game gets going in full, when we are making mile high Golems that tower above us, you can bet that the Good Players will be gunning for us. We are safe right now because no one knows about us." Nethlio took a sip from his cup, this was really good tea. He thought this over, it made sense. The Sculptors were at the moment the least active of all the Evil Paths right behind the Warlocks. But they had the most potential to be the biggest threat to the Good Players.

"So what should we do?"

"I think we should get a Netherghul. We should get one now, get in good with them before they get all full of themselves."

"So who should we go for?" Nethlio said as Omarica pulled up the Top Players window of the Menu.

"The current top dog of the Netherghuls is a dude by the screenname Elijin, currently the highest level Netherghul in the Wastelands and has completed three Gold Quests. The dude has certainly attracted a serious following, nineteen in his Faction though none are named."

"No, let's not go for the top… what about that Netherghul that was at the Temple before we left for the Hub. What was his name? He was getting famous. But he didn't really seem all that concerned with it."

"A guy that is just concerned with the job… I can like the idea of working for that."

"I thought you worked for me?"

* * *

Gilna walked through the finely crafted halls of the Under Road. This was the true Under Road, each and every inch of the hall was chiseled by a true craftsman, each column was built not only for a function but to be a thing of pure Dwarven workmanship. Her party was crossing between the fourth and fifth level. And almost as brief it came, the wonderful architecture was replaced by Nightmare icons and withered overgrowth. The fighting had gotten harder the lower they went too, coming in next the Mockery were hulking beasts carrying mock cannons that fired balls of dark magic. But right now it was quiet.

"All right, everyone back in the green?" Reglin said as peeked in through the crack in the level door. "I'm seeing a ton of Mocks and other things I am not even going to try to describe."

"This is the last level, we need to be on watch for the Boss." Lincus said as he checked his sword for nicks. "According to the Quest log it is a Three bar Boss, Gilna save your mana, we're going to need to keep it in one place so we can whittle it down since we don't have a Tank."

"If Fors was here he could summon something that could take the beating." Reglin said, while he wasn't mad that Fors left he was irritated that they had to do this without him.

"I can do this don't worry." Gilna said trying to hide her worry, she was going to help her party. They had taken her in and helped her survive this death game so far and she was going to help them anyway she could.

"Okay, let's get this over with." Selece said she pushed the doors open. The party followed her through. Reglin fired a few shots pricing through the skulls of several the Mockery while Lincus dashed forward to fight the nightmares head on with Selece keeping him safe with a magic barrier. Gilna was keeping back holding off using her magic, saving it for the Boss fight.

"Yawho! I love this fight!" Lincus yelled out before giving out a deafening battle cry.

"I can only wonder as to why he didn't choose to be a Gladiator." Reglin mumbled as he made a power shot to the head of one of the bigger monsters. The horde of creatures began to thin and once the last of the monsters had fallen the party took a deep breath of relief. They all had begun to dip down into the lower end of the yellow all but for Gilna. "Everyone drink up and let's get moving." The party drank a few health potions and continued on lower into the level. The fights after that were small and easy but stopped as soon as they reached a massive cliff sized wall if only a single ladder down to the bottom. The four looked out on to the flat road to see a enormous corrupted root blocking the path out to the rest of the Under Road network. All around it was Magic nodes and in the center on the root was a unblinking eye staring right at them.

"I think we found the Boss." Lincus said while the others just stared.

* * *

"I feel a bit lazy with how easy this is." Honic said as the three Evil Players walked through the third Level of the Under Roads. "We only see at the very least ten of these things and yet this is a dungeon.

"It's because those fucks cleared it out for us." Remus said as he kicked a skull across the hall.

"Settle down, we need to get a plan together for when we meet up with the players." Dyrath said never taking his eyes off the surrounding shadows.

"Kill em… right?" Remus asked.

"The mission is to stop them not to kill them, killing them could work but I want to avoid that moral gray area for as long as I can. I'm thinking taking them captive, works out for us better in the long run, we get info and show the Nobles we're smarter than just some dumb crazies who think kill and more killing."

"Makes sense." Honic said and Remus was just quiet. He wasn't looking forward to killing someone but he felt it should be gotten over with since it was bound to happen at some point.

* * *

Gilna watched as her party descended down the shaky ladder. She was waiting for them to get to the bottom so she and Selece could perform a quick reinforcement to the ladder with their roots. Just as she was about to set up the summoning spell felt someone pull her back and was quickly gaged and blinded by a thick cloth.

"Hey Gilna! We're all set down here!" Reglin yelled back up to his party mate. He never looked away from the Boss Ring, the longer they stood near it the more danger they were in of it expanding and the Boss fight beginning. He had never been in a real Boss fight, but from what he had heard and read thy were no joke. This was one of the easier Bosses, it only had three bars of health, it could be beaten by a four-person party but it was going to be hard. Reglin started to worry when he saw the Nodes started to be covered in roots. The last thing they need was the Boss preparing for them. "Gilna! Hurry up!"

"Hello down there!" A deep male voice yelled down. Reglin knew this voice well and it sent waves of anger, dread, and fear for Gilna.

"Vrucis! Where's Gilna?!" Reglin screamed up to the Barker. Gilna was shoved forward and caught by Vrucis before she fell of the wall.

"Me and my boys thought we might have a bit of fun before we throw her down with you." Vrucis grabbed Gilna's face. "Look at that, doesn't it look like it was made for screwing."

"You pig!" Selece raged up at the man before beginning to move to ladder but the ladder fell down, Selece looked up to see one of the Barkers squatting down with a knife by where the ladder was.

"What the hell are you doing you fucking asshole?!" Lincus yelled.

"I have to say Reglin you were quite right, it wasn't the right time to cut ties. But it is now! With the occupation we now have the support of the Dryads and the Barkers have never been so unified! All because of you."

"No it was you! You leaked out that the meeting took place!" Reglin yelled out.

"Maybe… maybe not. But that doesn't matter now, what matters is that I'm on the brink of leading a rebellion and I'll be in charge of the Treefolk."

"For about five days! Then the Empire and the Elves are going to boot your slimly ass out."

"Nope, the Forest and the Tree are so isolated and defendable that we can survive until this whole game is done. If the Goodies win then we win and if the Netherworld is on the brink of winning then we'll surrender to them. In any case we just need to wait this whole thing out."

"That's crazy!" They all yelled,

"Your opinion. But my plan will be ruined if you bring in the walking beards. So…" Vrucis brought out something from the pack on his side. It was a glowing blue orb covered in runes.

"A spell catalyst…" Reglin said in horror.

"Yes." Vrucis said with a savage smile. "I was hoping to use this little beauty to power up a spell stone when I found one but you're making me take desperate actions." Vrucis looked up at the Boss and Reglin in turn looked at it. Reglin's look of horror turned to absolute dread and terror, he knew what Vrucis was planning and he knew in his soul he was not going to live through it.

"You bastard." Reglin mumbled before he watched Vrucis throw the Spell catalyst at the Boss it landing right under its eye. Reglin watched as the veins of the root turn blue starting at at the impact site. An audible screaming sound was heard throughout the hall. The root began growing at an incredible rate. Growing unnatural growths and extensions. The Boss ring rapidly grew and caught up with Reglin's group. The Boss fight initiated and the party turned in shock to the Boss.

"God, what a sight." Vrucis said then looked at Gilna. "Well sweetie you're about to make all our day a hell of a lot more fun." Vrucis said as his party laughed and a few tears ran down Gilna's face. "Are fucking crying? Oh I knew you were a bitch with no back bone." Vrucis ripped off the cloth that blinded Gilna. The first thing she saw was her party fighting the strengthened Boss. The Boss now had six bars of health and the first two were armored. They had no chance, the things coming out of the ground were far different from the things they were facing before. They were disgusting monsters that were nothing but roots and glowing blue metal. She watched in pain as her friends fought the beasts but were quickly dropped down to the red. The only sound in the hall was the screams of the Boss and the laughter of the barkers.

Reglin was the last one of the three, he shooting as many of the monsters he could have but there were too many. As he was finally surrounded he could only think of one thing to do and took his final power shot at Vrucis hitting him in the arm freeing Gilna. Reglin smiled as he watched Gilna run away and felt content when he watched his HP bar dropped to zero.

"Fuck! Damn it!" Vrucis screamed out as Gilna ran back towards the stairs to the next level. She hadn't expected to get very far but when she bumped into metal armor. She was quickly taken by her arm once again but when she looked at her captor she was surprised to she the face of the Netherghul that sparred her life back at the Temple.

"Well what have we here?" A new voice said from behind the Netherghul. "That was some nasty backstabbing."

"Who the fuck are you guys?!" One of Vrucis Barkers demanded while the other three helped him. The power shot from Reglin had been poisoned so with that and the normal PVP effects of a power shot meant that the limb would not be functional for days and that's even if he was able to keep it at all.

"We came here to make sure that these guys failed in their mission but it would seem that you have done it for us." The one holding Gilna said, the way he was holding her was more like he was shielding her from the Barkers than actually keeping her captive but still he kept her under his strength. "Seeing as you guys don't want to finish this quest, I'm content to letting you guys just walk on out of here in exchange for two things, one we get credit for this. Don't want it getting out that you sent your own to death. Might make people think you do that to them." Vrucis thought this over, he was still feeling the pain in his arm but he needed to keep his head cool. These guys were heavily armed and he was basically useless in a fight like this. What the Netherghul said was true, he was going to keep things about this a secret anyways.

"Fine and the second request." This earned some shocked looks from his boys but with a hard glare they got back in line.

"We keep her." Gilna looked up at the Netherghul but said nothing.

"That…" Vrucis was unsure about this. She couldn't come back with them. She was going to be a bit of fun and then thrown down with the Boss. But if they took her then she might give information that would be very damaging. But Vrucis looked back the Evil Players, they would certainly beat them. "…fine. You can have her. Let's get going boys, I need to get this fucking arm fixed." Vrucis said before he walked past the Evil Players. His boys followed he, a bit reluctantly but they still followed. Once they were off the level the Netherghul let Gilna go. She slowly moved away from the Netherghul. She looked back at the three Evil players, she recognized the three as the ones that assaulted the Temple.

"Hey… she's that chick from the temple." The dark skinned Green Minion Player said pointing at her.

"Yeah… does that mean your group was the same one from the temple?" The Forge Fiend asked Gilna.

"Umm yeah, we haven't been the most popular party since then, we came here to try and help that and keep the Treefolk from rebelling against the rest of the Elves… but I guess that's not happening now." Gilna said not really sure if she was going to see the next day. But then a window popped in front of Gilna and the Evil Players. It said that she was now their captive, she then noticed that her party member list had changed to the new names with her at the bottom with the word slave under her Mana Bar.

* * *

Guide to DDO

Netherghul Army Tab- The Netherghul Overlord candidates have a special tab in their Menu called the Army Tab. It holds the current resources and allies of a Nehteghul. These are placed under two groups, Assets and Connections. Assets can range from battalions of Minions Soldiers to stocks of magic weapons and to doomsday weapons. Connections are made through interaction with NPCs and Players, it does not need to be positive interactions but simple needs to make the person believe that the Netherghul has a shot at being Overlord.

Evernight- The once conquered forest of eternal night was retaken by the Elves after the fall of the third Overlord and there was never even one attempt at taking it by the Glorious Empire due to the nearby Wastelands preventing a serious incursion. The Forest has now turned into the da facto capital of the Good Elves because of its natural protection.

The Shining Peaks- The Dwarven lands of the Shining Peaks are currently the only proper Dwarven nation. The Golden Hills have fallen in the rise of the third Overlord and the Halls of the Stars fell during the wars with the Elves. The Dwarves of the Shining Peaks are the only ones left other than the scattered few Dwarves out in the world.


	8. Chapter 8

Conrad's eyes opened to the sight of the cover of his tent in his warband's camp. His body was covered in wrappings and his arm had been placed in a makeshift sling. He forced his body to sit up despite the pain his felt from even moving.

"Well look who's up already." The voice of his overseer came to Condard like a train, the feeling of disappointment and irritation could be felt even in his damaged state. "You look like shit… frozen shit at that."

"Rotho, say what you want and get out." Condard wasn't in the mood for the program to shame him. He needed to get better and train, that Netherghul was still out there.

"All I have to say is that you could have died, when the men found you were on the verge of death by frostbite, that's not a way for a man like you to die. At the hands of the enemy sure, at least that has some honor to it, but to die from stupidity… that's beneath you." Rotho said before walking out of the tent leaving Condard alone with his thoughts. Condard knew that what his overseer said was true, dying in the cold was something he faced out in the real world before, he wasn't going to die that way now that he here. Condard groaned and forced himself to stand, every part of him hurt so moving to the mirror was painful. His face was covered in wrappings, he took one of the blades he had laying around and cut one of the bands of cloth and began to unwrap but what he found under shocked him. The first patch of skin that was uncovered was clear, the same light brown of his Hispanic heritage but once he uncovered more he began to see something had changed. He quickly uncovered the rest covering his face and saw the deep blue cracks of frozen flesh run up from his neck. He touched one of the streaks of blue and the cloth on his hand instantly froze and withered away. Condard's eyes widened at this. He hastily opened his player menu to see if something was afflicting him but there was nothing, no curses, diseases, or poison. He then saw that there was an alert to his skills. He opened the tab up to see that he had a new skill.

Frostbitten: _Surviving the magically tainted snow of the Frozen Wastes is no small feat and now you are blessed with the marks of that feat._ Your body is now infused with magic in the form of body covering frostbite. Contact without Player's consent will cause frost damage. No longer will be effected by cold and frozen effects

Condard smiled at reading this, he now could hunt down Zula and any others in the Frozen Wastes with a real advantage. He quickly covered his neck and his lower face, he didn't want to give away his new skill so soon if ever. After finishing with covering the frostbite he grabbed his sword and made his way out of his tent. His men looked up and the cam went deathly silent as they all looked on their leader with a mix of concern and skepticism. Few among them could ever hope to take his place on the top of the food chain but those that could were smart and knew that this recent loss could either be the best or worst time to make a move. Condard knew this, he had chosen these players for that purpose, it would be these players that kept him working and keep him from growing complacent.

"Cony!" Elis yelled happily as she ran to him. The small teen was among the few kids in the game, she had joined with her parents but now was separated and had found Condard as her surrogate parent. Condard had come to rely on her to watch his back, the girl had a knack for going unnoticed and that helped him listen in on the soldiers and to keep would be assassins at bay. "You woke up, I knew you would." Elis said as she playfully hit Condard's shoulder. "Oh… your still cold."

"Ignore that…" Condard looked back to his men, most of them had returned to their work or various activities but a few still held their eyes on Condard.

Guts, the largest of the players in Condard's Warband was the most obvious of these. A hulking brute of a man he was a no brainer when Condard was choosing players to take with him. He was the only one other than himself to take on trolls regularly in the Arena. But the two always shared a understanding that Condard was the better of the two, Guts could tell that his brute strength and size was better used as a tool for others because Guts knew that he didn't have the mind for leadership and tactical battle. His way to fight was to smash the head and be done. So of all the top players in the Warband he was by far the most loyal but this was only if Condard remained at the top, Guts had made it very clear, he would never try anything but at the same time he wouldn't stop someone else.

Another was Voriel, she was watching for any sign of what was currently in Condard's mind. She was someone that knew when to wait and ready themselves for just the right time to strike. In the Arena she was the favorite among the gamblers, they would never bet against her but instead bet on the minute the round would end, most often it came in single digits. She was in charge of setting traps and plan ambushes and she did her job flawlessly.

Condard couldn't see him but he knew where another of his more capable player was. Maxwell was something of the Warband's resident old wise man and playboy all wrapped into one. He was one of the Bata players and had used that time to learn as much as he could instead of actually play the game. But the twenty-six-year-old college dropout was still just that, a twenty-six-year-old college dropout. He might be a DDO genius but that still didn't make him any less of a dumbass and a vain dumbass at that, the boy wanted nothing more than status and to take the Warband from Condard would certainly improve said status.

And lastly there was Todric and his _goons_. The man himself was nothing more than a warrior pimp. But he kept thee men in line and knew how to keep the camp stocked with more than the few rations the Empire supplied them with. He was watching Condard the most, he still hated him for that time Condard almost killed him. But he had to play nice now, so long as the Warband did well Todric would continue to enjoy in its success and a strong Condard was needed in that so as long as Condard would give the Warband fame and wins then Todric's scheming would be kept at bay.

The rest of the Warband was well kept under either Condard's thumb or were in too deep in Todric's pocket. So none of them would even think of trying something. Condard walked through the camp giving out death glares to just make sure. He would not have any of his men getting any ideas to visit his tent at night with a dagger in hand. By the end of his little tour through the camp, he ended up on the nearby cliff face looking out over the city of Nordberg. The gates had already been opened and there were quite a large amount of Evil players passing in and out.

"Look at them all… all looking for you." A deep voice came from behind Condard.

"Surly it must have been a difficult trip from the capital, why would the emperor of the Empire come to such a desolate place." Condard said to the magic image of his emperor. He knew that it was simply a illusion, the man would never have come himself.

"I didn't, this is an image projection created by your Warband's Sentinel." Condard's eyes turned back looking at the blue robed being behind the projection. "I heard the Netherworld placed a five thousand bounty on you, an impressive amount considering you have yet to do something to earn it." Condard simply turned his eyes back to the city. "I had expected more from you, so I think I will give you test. You will head east and raze the port of Blackwater, burn it to the ground. The recent increase in troops from your bounty needs a response and this will be it. With the port gone Nordberg will lose one of its largest suppliers of food and life-force. I wait to see your actions." With that the image disappeared. Condard growled and threw a knife into the darkened face of the Sentinel.

"Rotho! Send word, we have orders… oh and request for a new sentinel."

* * *

Baltair was hiding from the latest Empire patrol. As a Blue Alpha-Minion he could turn invisible but that cost Mana and he currently was almost empty. The power to turn invisible had gotten him this far, he was able to trick that bloodthirsty gladiator with simple illusion magic and had been able to avoid being spotted so far. Xode's plan was working, he was almost at the War Command building. Once there he could start sending in all sorts of secrets back to Xode. Baltair ducked under a hedge as a group of citizens passed by. He looked across the white tile street to the large imposing building, unlike the roman medieval fusion that composed most of the Empire's city's architecture this building was far different. It was distantly gothic and built to hold up in a siege. Baltair was sure that there was some lore reason for it but he didn't really care, he originally bought this game to unwind, but now he was in a death game and relaxing was far from what he could do now.

Baltair turned invisible once he saw the road was clear, even if there was no one around he still wanted to be sure. He stood by the door of the building waiting for the door to open so he could get inside. Much to his luck and relief it so soon and just before it closed behind the person walking out he slipped in. he ran down the long stone hall and made his way to the upper rafters of the structure where he sighed at the safety of the darkness that covered him. He pulled up his player menu and opened the private message tab.

 _Xode I'm in the building, I haven't been spotted yet. What now?_

Baltair sent the message and waited a few minutes for his leader to respond.

 _Stay in the shadows, for right now just wait and listen._

After reading Xode's message Baltair was about to close out his menu but then got another message.

 _Change of plans, go to the War report offices and forge a report saying that a Abyss Rift formed in the Tree of Beginnings._

Baltair didn't understand what Xode wanted from doing this but he wasn't about to question his leader any time soon. After all, Xode was now the only one who could get him out of the city. Baltair needed to make Xode the next Overlord as soon as possible, the way for him to be safe again was once the Netherworld took the Empire's capital.

* * *

The walk back to the Netherworld camp was fairly uneventful, the Zone had become more or less easy for Dyrath's group. They all were close to exceeding the level range for the zone. The Forest of Beginnings was a 1-12 zone and other than the PVP and the dungeons much of the Forest was fairly docile. However, from the moment they entered through the gates to say the reaction to Gilna was blatant would be a massive understatement. All the way to the group's own tent they were hounded by the Evil players. As far as Dyrath knew, the idea of taking a Good player as a group slave was a widely known game mechanic but hadn't been done before. There were players throwing things at the dryad and many hoots and hollers from many males who certainly had their own ideas about the use of a slave. But that all stopped when on the way to the tent Remus punched out a guy who very bluntly put out his opinion on the dryad. The four soon reached the tent. Dyrath quickly walked to his quarters and Honic and Remus lounged in the central area of the tent.

Gilna just stood by the door unsure of what to do, everything was changing so fast. Her party had been killed and now she had been taken by Evil Players as a slave. She understood that Evil Players weren't actually Evil, they were just people who had chosen the Evil path in the beginning of the game. But still, she was worried. The walk through the camp had not help but the players that had taken her hadn't done anything to hurt her, and they had spared her before at the temple.

"Okay… we need to get the elephant out of the room." Dyrath said coming back out in a floor length black and green robe. The robe had been a monster drop and while it wasn't good for combat it was very comfortable and to Dyrath looked pretty good. "I pulled up the Slaves and Prisoners of War tab in the game's manual." Dyrath said as he walked over to Honic and Remus. "It say that players can take captives from the other alignment and can either use them as part o the party or sell them off to either the Arena for the good or the Slave Markets in the Netherworld."

"I say sell her." Remus said fully prepared for the coming dirty looks from Dyrath and Honic. "We don't need the trouble and she could kill us in our sleep, I say we take the cash and be done with it."

"She can't kill us; it says that Slaves can't inflict damage to their… owners. And I think that we should keep her, in the markets she could go to some pervert or sadist. I'm not going to have that on my conscious."

"That the thing that tells you right from wrong." Honic jokingly said to Remus.

"Shut up tubby."

"Both of you shut up." Dyrath said taking command of the room. After sighing at the bickering of his party members he turned to Gilna. "Come over here." Gilna nodded and walked over to the three men. "You're going to be working with us from now on. Given how shitty the rest of the Treefolk seemed to have treated you I assume that your willing to help us." Gilna quickly thought about that, it was true. Other than her former group, most of the Treefolk had never been too kind. Pretty much all of the Barkers by the time of the occupation had turned into complete jerks and the Dryads had become increasingly defensive and close-minded. Gilna nodded to Dyrath's question. "Good, then you can start by telling us about yourself." Dyrath asked as he sat down on one of the nearby recliners. Remus grunted and left the tent not too interested in learning about the dryad.

"Um… well my name is Gilna and I just turned eighteen two weeks ago. I'm here because I was going to play with my brother but I'm not sure if he's here. He always tried to get me to go out and meet people, I guess he thought this would be easier for me." Gilna was surprised that they were letting her talk this long.

"Well Gilna, my name is Dyrath and I'm twenty years old and I'm going to be the next Overlord. And that was the only reason why I turned on my NERV Gear on."

"I'm Honic, I'm here because I just love MMOs and I wanted to try VR."

"And the guy that just left was Remus, he's… nice at times when you get to know him." Dyrath slightly joked, but it more like he was trying fix any damage Remus had done to her opinion of him. Something Dyrath thought it would be best to talk about with the other two Evil players of his group was the section just below Slaves and Prisoners of War, the Redemption and Corruption section.

* * *

"We don't need the Empire or the Sanctuaries anymore! All we need is the forest! It will keep us safe from the Netherworld!" Vrucis looked down on the speaker. He was one of many Barkers preaching in the Tree of Beginnings for separation. The Treefolk players were ready and willing for a uprising but lacked the opportunity. They all knew that against the full might of the Netherworld without the other Good Factions they would quickly be crushed. But he had a plan for that.

"Boss. Yourrba found the tunnel you talked about." One of Vrucis' Barkers whispered to him.

"Good, how are the numbers looking?"

"The Empire troops number in the hundreds but are currently in the process of rotating out, the troops will be leaving soon and fresh soldiers will be arriving by tomorrow morning. If we're going to make a move it needs to be now." Vrucis looked back the crowd of angry players and then a group of Empire soldiers coming in and trying to arrest the preaching Barker. He smiled, yes now was the right time.

"Ready the boys, things are going to be getting a bit bloody real soon."

* * *

The War Command office was going nuts. The several reports of an Abyss rift opening in the Forest of Beginnings had changed everything. To the all the players it was a chance to end this game now, to invade the Infernal Abyss and be one step closer to killing the final boss. Many knew that the Final Boss could never be beaten this early but any information they gain would be invaluable. Already legions of soldiers were being moved to invade the Zone. Messages were being sent to the dwarves and Elves, the Netherworld spies sending back the news to their masters and allies.

* * *

Vrucis walked through the deep tunnel that lead to his goal. With the support of the Treefolk players and his current objective he knew that all his plans could be achieved. The tunnel he was walking through was fully made intertwining roots.

"Umm… Boss, what's at the end of this tunnel?"

"Quiet." Vrucis said with a death stare to the Barker who asked. "This tunnel was made to respond any sound higher than a whisper will set off the roots and we'll all be skewered." The rest of the group collectively gulped at this news. The remainder of the walk through the tunnel was in complete and utter silence. But once they exited they entered into a grand chamber and at the center a blue glowing root that traveled down the very top of the tree to the lowest of the roots. The blue root twisted and turned down to the great hole in the middle of the chamber. "Welcome boys! To the central node of the Tree of Beginnings and the Zone's Admin Control Center." Vrucis announced as he walked to the hole in the middle of the chamber. As he walked out on to the hole new roots came to hold his feet up as he walked to the blue root. "This will change everything." Vrucis laughed as the blue root grew out to his hands to form a keyboard and screen. But just before he typed a single key one of his men yelled out to him.

"Hey Boss! Bad news!"

"What?! I'm about to win here!" Vrucis growled out, he had spent the entire time he had been in this game for this moment. It had come a bit earlier than he thought it would.

"Apparently an Abyss rift opened somewhere in the zone and everyone is sending in they got, Empire, Dwarves, Elves, and even the Netherworld are moving to invade in force!"

"What?!" Vrucis looked back to the screen and began thinking "An Abyss Rift… there shouldn't be any Abyss activity for years… could this be caused by Kayaba; the man has disappeared, is he finally making a move. I have check." Vrucis entered his passcode into the Admin's terminal. "Just as I thought, there's no Abyss Rift. This has to be some kind of trick… but the Netherworld is falling for it too, this has to be Kayaba. No one else could possible benefit from this. But now… they all will learn the hard way to stay away from the Forest of Beginnings." Vrucis smiled as he opened the Zone control page. He quickly marked every race and path but the Treefolk path as hostile. And then raised the Zone's own level to that of a hundred. To top everything off he marked his player account as Path leader. "It's done. By the time those forces reach here the forest will be a death trap." Vrucis said with a savage grin on his face.

* * *

Author's Notes.

Well sorry for the long wait and sorry even more for the cliff hanger.

Really big thanks to PhazonLordKaito, without his/her help I would have never gotten this out by now and it most likely would have been some patched together nonsense that I would have cooked up just to get me to the next part that I had planned out.

Also if anyone wants me to make a character for them or they have an idea then PM me the info and I'll see if I can include it at some point.


End file.
